


A Mermaid’s Song

by quicksilver_nightsky



Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: (that new one on Netflix with the circus), Ardyn is the Devil, Blind Ignis Scientia, Deal with a Devil, Little Mermaid Elements, M/M, Magic Travelling Circus, mermaid prompto
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-09
Updated: 2019-03-04
Packaged: 2019-09-14 21:58:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 23
Words: 27,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16921158
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/quicksilver_nightsky/pseuds/quicksilver_nightsky
Summary: “No, but you’ll want to listen Noctis. This isn’t really a story about a long lost prince. This is the story of a little mermaid who once believed in love.”





	1. A Bargain Is Struck

**Author's Note:**

  * For [cosplaythief](https://archiveofourown.org/users/cosplaythief/gifts).



> You can blame Cosplaythief’s throwaway comment about Prompto and Noct little mermaiding for this ball of madness. 
> 
> Just go with it.
> 
> (Adjustment of the summary 10th December)

Noctis had gone to the circus himself at first. He was old enough not to see the magic and wonder of a travelling circus. Could see the roaches crawling too close to the concession stands, smell the shit of the animals they had for show, see the worn patches in the tents from repairs and the wear and tear of life on the road. 

But he was desperate to believe in magic for one more night. (If he believed in magic, he could believe in miracles.) So he went to the shows, saw the Gladiator the Strongman lift weights in a display of “impossible feat of strength” (everyone knew they were hollow weights but whatever. He looked impressively muscular and that was the point); saw a Ignatious the ‘Blind’ Man throw daggers at a spinning target and hit his aim every time (stage make-up over the eyes, the sunglasses disguised his perfectly good eyes probably); watched Highwind, a viciously beautiful white-haired woman, perform acrobatic tricks as if gravity was nothing to her (wires, maybe, or just plain skill at aerial gymnastics); and an impossibly beautiful waif-thin “Moon Girl” contort herself into mind-defying positions (double jointed and flexible, whatever).

Then the lights all went dark, and a spark of a match lit, illuminating the ringleader with his coat of white and black, red hair hanging in his face. His eyes almost glowed golden — but that was probably a trick of the lighting. “Now, for one of the true wonders of the world — turn your eyes upon the last mystery of the deep blue sea.” The match burnt out, leaving the room in utter darkness. 

A spotlight lit up on the glowing blue waters of a glass-sided pool. A flash of something silvery beneath the waters — some excited gasps or whispers. And then more lights, until the form of a blond mermaid was clearly visible in the otherwise empty blue pool. 

Okay, that was a pretty impressive costume. He was in the front row, he could see the intricate details of each individual scale on the (probably rubber) tail — almost naturally flowing into pale skin. The performer was short-haired, and flat-chested though. Probably why the ringmaster hadn’t just straight out said ‘mermaid’. More silver scales were glued sporadically up his arms and shoulders. 

The mermaid (merman?) performer swum in circles around the pool, movements graceful and elegant in the water. But he was counting, he wouldn’t be able to hold his breath for much longer. 

Yep, there it was — he leapt out of the water like a dolphin, probably gulping in a much needed breath, and landed gracefully back in — splashing him and some other people in the front row. 

Then the lights plunged out dramatically again to the sound of amazed applause. When they came up again, the pool had disappeared (lowered back under the stage more like), and the ringmaster was bowing and thanking them for their attendance. 

He stayed where he was sat, the rest of the crowd shuffling outside towards the rest of the attractions outside. 

Well. He’d come for magic and all he’d got were cheap tricks and skilled performers. “So much for miracles,” he muttered. 

“Well, if it’s miracles you seek, that is more than the price of admission.”

He jumped — he wasn’t ashamed to admit it — and turned to see the ringleader sitting behind him. “Rude to eavesdrop.”

“And here I thought you came here for a miracle.” He rose to his feet with a grandiose spread of his arms. “But if you don’t want my help…”

“Cheap tricks and clever actors aren’t magic,” Noct accused. “I need more than sleight of hand to save my father.”

The ringleader looked amused. He pressed his fingers to his lips a moment, then removed them. “He was in an accident— the car that overturned by the bridge, yes?”

Fucking newspapers. He got angrily to his feet. “Yeah.”

The red-haired man took out a tiny bottle from his pocket, twirling it back and forth over his knuckles with deceptive ease. “I cannot give him back his life. But I can grant you two more weeks with him.” With a smirk, he tossed the little bottle at Noct, who fumbled to catch it. “A mermaid’s tears. Not quite like the legends. Worth a fortnight of life, not eternal youth.” 

“I don’t need placebo effects,” Noctis muttered. 

“If you don’t want it, give it back,” the ringleader taunted. 

Noct’s hand tightened around the bottle instinctively. 

The man only smirked. “If you use it, you agree to the price.”

“The price?” He asked mockingly.

“Naturally. Your human soul, your life, to belong to me as long as I should live.” The ringleader swept away. “At the end of the two weeks, when your father passes, you will return to me. Then you will join us.”

“Whatever,” Noct muttered, shoving the little bottle in his pocket. What did he need sugar water for anyway? He needed a medical miracle. 


	2. Chapter 2

It started halfway through the funeral. This compulsion, like a song stuck in his head, pulling somewhere around his chest to _come, come, come to me_. He wished he didn’t know what it was. 

But he’d used the goddamn ‘mermaid tears’ and like magic, his father had woken from his coma. They’d managed to talk things through, hash out some of the bad blood between them. (His dad changed his will, so he didn’t have to run the company. He was free to be his own person.)

And then exactly fourteen days later, to the minute, his father had a heart attack (delayed onset from the physical trauma of his crash, said the doctors) and he was dead. He thought he could hear laughter in his head the moment it happened, and the salty smell of tears and seawater. 

Well. He believed in magic now. Curses and costs. 

Clarus, his father’s oldest friend (and business successor) tried to ask him what it was he planned to do. 

The pull tugged on him, hard, almost physical enough to move his feet for him. “I’m going away for a bit.” He answered instinctively. “I can’t stay.”

“Noctis,” the man said — almost fatherly in his tones, grating harshly against his grief — “just because you won’t be running the company, doesn’t mean you don’t have a place with us.”

“I have to go away,” he insisted. He followed the pull, let his feet walk him away — toward the outskirts of town. 

Clarus yelled after him, but after a while he couldn’t even hear his voice any more. 

_Come, come, come to me_.

Finally, he stopped at the empty lot where the circus had been. The grass was clean and untrampled, as if nothing had ever been there. It was deserted — except for a single, skinny tent. It was garishly coloured, one flap fluttering in the wind. Not that he could feel the wind. 

“Magic,” he muttered. “Fine, fine, I’m coming. Stop pulling.”

Taking a deep breath, he stomped towards the tent and ducked inside. He couldn’t even be surprised when he stepped inside the tiny tent — no bigger than a changing room on the beach — and stepped out into the huge flat top where the main show had taken place. The small crowd of performers fell silent, staring at his arrival. 

And then the dagger guy pushed his sunglasses further up his nose. “Ah. Noctis, welcome.”

“He told you to expect me?” He guessed warily. 

“That fucker didn’t tell us anything,” the strongman said, rolling his eyes. “Pull up a chair. You’re probably recovering from whatever tragedy he tricked you into.”

Feet feeling numb, he crossed to sink down onto a clothes trunk. 

“Everyone, this is Noctis,” dagger guy explained, “Noct, this is Gladio, Aranea and Lunafreya.”

“And he’s Ignis,” ‘Gladio’ added helpfully, jerking a thumb at him. 

“Ah. Yes. Pleased to meet you at last.” He offered a hand for Noct to shake — but he was aiming about two feet away from where Noct was actually sitting. 

“Uh.” He reached out and awkwardly shook it, carefully adjusting his angle. “Hi?”

An awkward flush crossed over Ignis’s expression momentarily as he fixed his handshake. 

“So, what’d you sell your soul for kid?” The older woman — Aranea? — asked. 

“Tactful,” Ignis commented dryly. 

“What? We’re gonna be spending a lot of time together for the next, Oh, _eternity_. Might as well get used to it now.” She said dismissively. 

“What did you ask for?” Noct challenged in return. 

A wicked sort of grin covered her face, with too much teeth, “money. What else matters in the world?”

“Oh yes, you made a _windfall_ ,” Ignis deadpanned. Gladio groaned as if his words actually hurt him. 

“What about you?” Noct asked Ignis, since he was feeling chatty. 

A wry twist of his mouth as he pushed his sunglasses up again. “I wished to see the future with more clarity.” He tapped one finger at the bottom of his silvery white scars under one eye. “And ever since, I have had precognition of the most remarkable accuracy.”

He raised his eyebrows at Gladio expectantly, and one muscular shoulder jerked up in a lazy shrug. “I wished I was stronger.”

He turned to look at Lunafreya, to ask her, but her eyes were sad. “I had the consumption,” she whispered, her voice soft and barely audible. “I just wanted to be free from the constraints of my body.”

“So fess up,” Gladio grunted, almost aggressive about changing the subject before it could upset her further. 

He dropped his eyes, looking at his now-scuffed formal shoes. “He gave me mermaid tears. For my father.”

“My condolences,” Aranea said, with surprisingly sincere sympathy. 

He shrugged, trying to brush it off. “Hey, where’s the other guy? The one in the mermaid costume.”

Aranea laughed slightly. “Mermaid costume,” she echoed. 

Ignis rose to his feet. “Would you like to meet him? He won’t be sociable, but you can say hello.”

He frowned with confusion, but stood up as well. “Yeah. Okay?”

“Follow me.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (Aranea is a lying liar who lies)


	3. Quick as Silver

Ignis led him, steps sure and practiced, to the curtain that led to the backstage area. He stepped in ahead of him and paused. There was the water tank from the show. It took a while but he spotted a curl of silver on the bottom of the tank. He thought it was the discarded tail costume at first — but then he saw the rest of the body, pale skin, curled protectively behind the tail like the coils of a snake. 

Confused, his feet carried him to the edge of the tank. He crouched down, ignoring the familiar pain in his knee, and looked closer. From this distance, he could see the gills along the tail, shifting to filter water through. He raised his hand slightly. 

“Don’t tap the glass,” Ignis warned. 

His face flushed with embarrassment — because that was exactly what he’d been about to do. “Sorry.”

It didn’t matter anyway, the sound of Ignis’s voice had alerted the guy in the tank to their presence. The blond head of the hair raised and blue eyes stared at him. The colour of his irises were a pretty blue, dark and almost violet. But the whites of his eyes were pink — like he’d spent too long in chlorinated water… or he’d been crying. 

He pressed his hand against the glass of the tank. “Hi. I’m Noct. I’m new here.”

In a sinuous movement, the guy raised his torso up from the curl of his tail to match his eye level. One hand reached to lay against the glass on the other side of his. There was silvery webbing between his fingers, like the trails of his tail. 

Practically face-to-face, he could see his skin was speckled with the occasional silver scale, as well as the patches up his arms and shoulders — especially across his cheeks and the bridge of his nose. 

“His name is Prompto,” Ignis supplied helpfully. 

“Prompto,” Noct echoed. “Pleased to meet you, Prompto.” Gods, he was so beautiful. He leaned closer, to get a closer look.

He fell back when there was an aggressive thump near his face — realising as he landed that Prompto had slammed his tail against the tank in front of his face. 

Faster than he’d thought possible, Prompto darted across the tank to the opposite side. Noct got up to pursue him, but Ignis’s hand grabbed his shoulder and held him still. It seemed to scare off the hypnotised daze he was in. 

“You should stay away from the mermaid, Noctis,” he said, heavy with the weight of knowledge. To come or had already passed?

“Why?” He asked, confused. 

“Pain, suffering, tears, and heartbreak.”

Noct snorted. “Yeah, I think I’ll be fine,” he deadpanned. 

“You assume I meant yours.” Ignis turned and walked away, knowing he would follow. “We’ll find you something to do. Things get very boring quite quickly if you haven’t a job to occupy your time.”

Noct walked behind him, but at the parted curtains, he couldn’t help himself. He turned to glance back at the tank. Reddened eyes watched him from above the coil of his tail, meeting his gaze until the curtain fell between them. 

“What do you do for fun?”

(...)

Ignis lifted his head as he heard footsteps, going from the sandy floor of the arena onto the tiles of his kitchen. Heavy, but tentative. 

“Gladiolus,” he greeted calmly. 

“How do you always know it’s me? You’re not supposed to be able to tell the present.” The voice, its cadence as familiar to Ignis as his own, was almost sulky. 

“I can hear your feet,” he replied calmly. “I’m about to cook, would you like to help me?”

“You’re not afraid of losing another pot?” His tone was guarded, bruised with self-loathing. Last time, he had warped the metal with the touch of his fingers. 

“Not at all,” he answered. “You can crush the tomatoes for the pasta sauce.”

“Okay. If it’ll save you time.” He walked carefully to the kitchen counter, over to where Ignis had placed the bag of tomatoes. 

“Set aside—”

“Any of the rotten ones. I know.”

He pushed over the large stockpot for him. “Try not to spray seeds everywhere,” he warned, already foreseeing the clean up it would cause without his warning. Gladio would be careful now. 

As he worked, tomatoes turning to pulp with only the slightest application of the force of his fingers, Gladio spoke: “you told Noct to say away from the mermaid.”

“I did,” he agreed calmly, feeling the outside of the onions to ensure he had peeled them adequately. 

“You know that’s just gonna make wanna him do it more, right? Cause you told him not to.”

Ignis gave a faint smile. “Gladiolus. You ruin the magic if you explain how it works.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Would you rather faster, shorter updates, or longer chapters less often? Right now these chapters are 800/w each. But I could do 1600/w split chapters that would take longer to post.


	4. Going Home

He ended up selling popcorn. Fishing and Video Games — like the only things he actually liked to do — didn’t really lead to actual life skills. Let alone ones he could use at a magical travelling circus. He carried boxes of popcorn in a box hung from his neck, and wandered up and down the aisles to sell striped paper bags of mostly-stale salty snacks.

His favourite part was when the lights went dark and he got to see Prompto perform. The mermaid loved children more than anything — his jumps were a little higher, a little showier when there were kids in the audience. The show was really the only time he came alive. 

Whenever Noct passed him otherwise, he was curled up on the bottom of the tank, just lying there — eyes tracking Noct as he went past. 

His eyes didn’t look red any more, at least. Well, once or twice but not all the time. 

Time was all weird. Sometimes the crowds would be dated, in retro clothing, others modern like he remembered — and other times there were women in fancy butt dressed and men with handlebar moustaches in top hats. 

His job stayed pretty much the same except sometimes he took two shillings and sometimes he took two bucks. (No matter what they bitched how much it cost.)

Well. At least he didn’t have to see the clowns. 

  


One day, while serving out bowls of delicious beef stew, Ignis lifted his head and gave a curious hum. “It seems we’re going home.”

“Home?” Noct asked, confused. 

“Of sorts,” Ignis answered. 

“Cottontail Isle, a island full of amusement parks in the bay of Insomnia,” Aranea answered. “What are we up to, July 1901?”

“Still March I think,” Gladio grunted. 

“Still the slow season, great,” Aranea muttered. 

“We have a permanent attraction at an amusement park in the heyday of Cottontail Isle,” Ignis explained for Noct’s benefit. “We’ll summer there, in the busy season. Then continue the travelling circuit.”

“Well, I’m pleased,” Luna said, in her soft voice. “It’s been ever so long since we were near the beach. It will be nice to give Prompto some fresh seawater. He’s been so glum lately.”

“He’s not like that normally?” Noct asked curiously, looking up from his bowl. 

Aranea snorted. “Blondie? He’s the life of the party normally. Can’t get him to sit still.”

“...huh.” He didn’t know if he could really believe that. He’d only ever seen the mermaid move during showtime. 

“I’ll lug his tank down the pier when we land,” Gladio grunted. “Pass the salt.”

“How dare you accuse my food of being under-seasoned?” Ignis asked, affronted. 

“I just want a little more salt,” Gladio grumbled. 

“Would you _like_ to go back to preparing your own meals? Because I assure you I get no pleasure in cooking for _ingrates_.”

Noct tuned out their now familiar argument. 

He’d been to Cottontail before, when he was a kid. It had been a burnt up, ghost-town with only a few rickety ‘thrill’ rides (extra sarcasm on the thrill) and a dated arcade. But his dad had remembered it like it was a paradise — crowds, ice cream, beaches, everything at an amusement park you could possibly imagine. It would be weird to see it in its ‘heyday’. Like more than a century ago. 

He was almost looking forward to it. 

  


Truth be told, he didn’t even notice at first that they’d arrived ‘home’. He just went about his day. That was until he felt an inflated leather ball smack wetly against the side of his head. 

He turned to shout at — probably Aranea — but froze up when he spotted the real culprit. 

Prompto was grinning at him cheekily, arms hanging over the side of his tank. He looked lively, and the water in his tank seemed less unnatural blue. “Hello Noctis-I’m-New-Here,” he called playfully. 

“Just Noct is fine,” he said, surprised to find his feet bringing him closer to the tank until they were face to face. 

“Okay, Just-Noct.” There was laughter simmering under his comment. Gods, he was so beautiful. The soft lights backstage caught the silver scales across his cheeks, making him almost glow. 

Swallowing awkwardly, he held up the ball. “This yours?”

“Ye _p_!” he replied, snapping the p so it sounded like a bubble popping on the surface of the water. 

“Any reason you pelted it at my face?” He replied, tossing it up for him to catch. 

The fin of Prompto’s tail darted out of the water to smack it up into the air and onto the deck before it touched the surface. “Not really. I’m bored, and it got your attention.”

“Well you’ve got it, now what do you plan on doing with it?” He challenged. Did that sound flirty? Shit, that sounded pretty flirty. 

Prompto laughed — like the sound of water babbling across the stones of a brook. He leaned up on his arms, so their faces were close together. Noct felt dazzled. “Kiss me,” he said in a light, playful voice. 

He leaned in to obey, then paused and frowned a little. “Why?”

Prompto laughed again. “You’ll see. Once you kiss me.”

It seemed like a sound argument. But… “won’t you taste like fish?”

“Uh… rude?” Prompto replied, offended. “Won’t you taste like _monkey_?”

“No! I mean…” He felt his cheeks flush with embarrassment. “Ignis said you eat raw fish. Whole.”

“Oh. That. Well… you’ll taste like _vegetables_ , so who’s getting the worse deal here?” Prompto laughed again. He gave Noct another dazzling smile. “Kiss me,” he demanded again. 

Noct let his eyes flutter closed, pressing their lips together. They were cold and damp, but it felt nice. Really, really nice. 

Prompto hummed and parted their kiss. “Okay, keep your eyes closed until I say.” There was the lap of shifting water, something against the wood of the temporary deck built around the side of the tank, something that sounded like shifting material. 

Then Prompto’s voice was next to him. “Kay, you can open your eyes now.”

He blinked them open slowly, eyes searching the tank for the mermaid. At the sound of a babble of laughter, he turned his head and found Prompto. 

He was sitting on the edge of the deck, actual human legs dangling over the side, now dressed in plain clothes. The scales had disappeared from his skin and face, replaced instead by soft brown freckles. He was grinning, but it didn’t seem to dazzle Noct so much in his confusion. 

He slid off the edge of the deck, landing in front of Noct. He was just about his height, so they were eye-to-eye like they had been over the edge of the tank moments ago. When he was part-fish. “Wanna go see the pier? It’s been ages since I’ve had fresh air.”

“...you have legs.” That was his very clever, very relevant reply. 

Prompto laughed again and looked down at his toes, giving them a wriggle. “Mhm. Temporarily, because of you.” He looked back up at Noct. “Are you gonna freak out? Cause I only have until sunset, and that’s gonna waste time we could be playing down the pier.”

“I kissed you and now you have legs.” Yep, ten points awarded to Noctis Lucis Caelum for bein for able to hold a conversation. Bravo. 

“Ye _p_! That’s how it works.” He patted Noct’s shoulder sympathetically. “Well. I’m going to go find shoes, and then I’m going to play down the pier. Come along, if you want.” Giving him another grin — definitely less dazzling — he practically skipped away to the changing rooms. 

Noct stared after him for a moment, then broke into a run to catch up with him. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Longer chapter. I think it feels like a better length?


	5. Penny Arcade

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I did so much googling about 1900s New York and then threw it away at my leisure. If there’s time travel and mermaids, Noct can play a boxing robots game at pretend Coney Island 60 years before it was invented.

Noct followed closely behind Prompto, a little self-conscious of the clothes he was wearing. It was the remnants of the suit he’d worn to the funeral — all black, pinstripe suit with shoes that were no longer polished quite so brightly. He felt over-dressed. Like, was this meant to be a date, or…? 

“Race you to the arcade?” Prompto suggested, nudging him with his elbow. Without waiting for him to agree, he took off at a run towards the...building Noct assumed was the arcade. 

“Oh hell no,” he muttered. He took off running after him.

Prompto was way faster, but he caught up when Prompto stumbled over his own feet and fell on the ground. He crouched down to offer him a hand. “You okay there?”

“Let’s see you run without falling over when you’re used to being twice as long from the waist down,” he muttered — but it was more playful than anything. He got himself back to his feet, not taking Noct’s hand. “You don’t have to help me up. I know your knee hurts all the time.”

“You… know?” He asked suspiciously, getting back to his feet.

“Mhm,” he replied. “Anyway, what kind of arcade games do you like? I like the shooty ones — pew pew pew!” He made a gun with his thumb and forefinger, ‘firing’ it at Noct a few times. 

Noct laughed and grabbed his hand, pointing his finger toward the boards. “Careful with that. You might hurt someone,” he teased. 

Prompto just grinned brightly at him. “So?”

Oh right. He’d asked a question somewhere. “Uh. I like the fighting games. But you might not have them here… now…” He trailed off. Time was confusing. 

Prompto’s smile widened. “Oh, I know.” He wrapped his hand around Noct’s wrist and ran towards the arcade doors. 

It had the same sort of atmosphere as arcades in his time, but without all the lights and electronic noises. He caught glimpses of, like, analogue pinball and a lot of slot machines, a couple of coin drops, and a row of shooting games with rotating lines of targets. Prompto dragged him to a dark corner and moved him to a stop in front of… some early version of rock ‘em sock ‘em robots.

The blond… former-mermaid beamed at him proudly, as if begging to be told he’d done good. 

Noct smiled at him. “Hey. What do you know.” 

Prompto looked so happy at that. He felt around in his pockets and beamed when he produced three pennies. Grinning, he slid one to Noct, “put it in!” and lined himself up behind the figurine with blue boxing gloves. 

Noct had to search for the coin slot, but once he found it, he slid the penny in and placed his fingers on the buttons. 

Prompto laughed the whole time and clapped him on his back at his victory. “Good work, Noct!”

Noct peered at him slightly. He was a pretty guy, yeah, and his smiles were bright and infectious. But he didn’t seem as dazzling as he did inside the circus. Was that just part of the atmosphere?

“...want a go? Noct? Noct?”

“Huh?”

Prompto gave his light, babbling laugh. “I asked if you wanted a go on the shooters?” He repeated, pointing to one of the moving machines. 

“Uh. Sure.” 

Prompto stood right behind him as he used a coin to operate the game. He knocked down a few targets, but only got one coin spit back out for his troubles. 

The blond smiled and squeezed his shoulder. “Not bad for your first time!” He sounded so genuine about it too. He reused the dispensed coin to load up the game. And then he shot out every single one of the targets in quick succession, getting a handful of coins spat out at him. 

“Dude,” Noct said, impressed. “That was kick ass.”

Prompto looked shy as he smiled. “Ah… I’m okay. I’ve just had a lot of practice.” He tucked the coins into his pockets. “Are you hungry? We can go find an oyster cart.”

“Oyster cart?” He asked dubiously. 

“Ye _p_!” Prompto said brightly. “I always get them on the pier. Half a dozen for five pennies!”

“You…” He pulled a face. “Kept out in the air? At this time of day?”

Prompto laughed again. “Okay. So not oysters. We’ve got ten pennies. See what you can find us to eat.”

Noct paused slightly. “Are you like a real human now?”

He frowned. “Are you like a real mermaid now?” He returned. 

“No, I mean. Can you eat everything we can?”

“Oh!” Prompto smiled instead. “Yeah. Go ahead.”

“Good. Wait here, I wanna surprise you.” He took the money and dashed off, grinning as he found a hot dog stand. Okay, they were calling them ‘dachshund sausages’ but same thing. He got two with all the fixings (for all of ten pennies. That was ridiculous) and then hurried on his way back to where he’d left Prompto. 

The blond was standing against the wall of the arcade. A taller man was leaning over him, one arm pressed against the wall. “Why don’t you and me take a walk down the pier?” He asked, flirtatious. “I can take you on the carousel.”

Prompto was smiling politely. “No thank you,” he said, his voice calm. 

“Aw, don’t tease me, a pretty boy like you. Just a short walk.”

“No, thank you,” Prompto repeated. “I’m waiting for someone.”

The man reached up to move a bit of blond hair out of his eyes. “I can imagine you’ve got your suitors lining up. But you should come with me instead. I’ll treat you better.”

Having had enough, Noct came over and elbowed the man aside — hard. “Hey, got you lunch.” He stared down the stranger until he skulked off. “Was he bugging you?”

Prompto laughed and patted his arm, taking one of the hot dogs and inspecting it with curiosity. “Don’t worry about that. He can’t help it. None of the humans can really.” He glanced up at Noct. “Oh, don’t worry. The glimmer doesn’t work on you any more. You kissed me, so you can see me for me.”

“Is that why you’re not all… dazzling any more?” He asked, awkward. 

“Ye _p_! Exactly.” He turned the hot dog back and forth in his hand. “What is it?”

“It’s a hot dog.”

“Is it made of dog meat?” He asked, giving it a wary glare. 

Noct laughed. “No, I promise. Don’t ask what actually _is_ in it, but it’s not dog. They call it that cause they look long and skinny like dachshunds.”

“Oh. Okay.” Prompto shrugged and tried to take a bite out of it like a sandwich. 

Noct laughed again and used a napkin to wipe his nose and cheeks off. “Here. It’s cleaner like this.” He held it properly and showed Prompto how to bite it from the end. “Like that,” he said through a mouthful. 

Prompto tilted his head and then gave it a proper try. His eyes went wide with delight. “Noct, they’re so yummy!”

Noct laughed and nudged him with his elbow. “Better than oysters?” 

“Mm. Maybe not,” Prompto grinned. “But better texture anyway!” 

Noct shook his head in amusement and focused on his own. Prompto was weird. It was kinda cute. 


	6. A Walk On The Pier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ardyn is a creep

Noct walked alongside Prompto on the boards of the pier. Prompto was walking on top of the wooden rail, arms held up for balance, slowly placing each foot in front of the other. The afternoon was dwindling, the sun sinking towards the horizon. “What’s your favourite colour?” Prompto asked, hopping from one foot to the other. 

“Black.”

“Iggy would tell you black isn’t a colour. That it’s the way your brain fills the absence of any colours on the visible light spectrum.”

“Gold then,” he replied, rolling his eyes. “Yours?”

“Hm. It’s gotta be—” He made a bizarre noise in his throat that sounded something like a hiss of steam and a dolphin’s clicking noise. 

“What,” Noct deadpanned. 

“It’s not on your visible light spectrum,” Prompto said with a playful smile. He wobbled a bit, planting his free foot behind him to regain balance. 

“You’re going to fall.”

“Oh no. Fall. Into the ocean. Whatever will I do?” He laughed. “It’s your turn for a question.”

“Uh. Okay.” He hummed, watching Prompto wobble precariously. “So like, if you had more than one daytime to be human, what would you do?”

Prompto froze up mid-motion, one foot hanging in the air. He looked longingly into the distant for a long moment, then his expression shuttered. “Pass.”

“Really?” He asked in disbelief. “That’s what you’re using your pass on? Alright…” He shook his head and offered up a hand for Prompto to use to rebalance himself. “Seriously? Nothing though? There’s nothing you’re dying to know about humans?”

Prompto snorted. “I already learned everything I need to know about humans decades ago.”

“Yeah? What’s that?” 

“That humans are cruel, horrible stinky creatures. They hate everything that’s a little bit different from them unless they can pay to see it, and destroy everything good they touch.”

Noct stood silently after that tirade, watching Prompto take a few more unsteady steps. 

The blond turned to look at him, wearing a cheeky smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “So, exactly the same as mermaids — but stinky.” He hopped down until he was sitting on the railing, legs dangling over the ocean below. “It’s a lesson I learned early and won’t ever forget.”

Noct leaned his elbows on the railing next to him, leaning on one palm so he could look out at the afternoon sun. “...yeah, but we have hot dogs.”

Prompto laughed, and it sounded genuine this time. “Okay. I’ll give you that.” A comfortable silence settled between them. He pointed the toe of one of his soft leather boots towards the waves below. “Are there people you left behind that will miss you?” His voice was quiet, sad. 

“Nah,” he answered indifferently. He shifted so he had his back to the rail, arms folded over his chest as he looked up at Prompto. “It was just me and my dad. And now he’s gone.”

Prompto looked down at the water. “I’m sorry about your father,” he admitted quietly. “I know it was my fault.”

“It wasn’t your fault. He was dying anyway.”

“Yeah, but it was my tears.” Prompto said mournfully. 

He hadn’t actually known it was Prompto’s. He’d suspected, but figured ‘mermaid tears’ might just have been the name of a potion. “Okay, Yeah. But. I’m the one who gave them to him.” He dropped his eyes down to his feet in their scuffed leather shoes. “I got to say goodbye to him, at least. Thanks to you.”

“Thanks to Ardyn,” Prompto said. His voice was low and angry, especially as he said the name. 

Noct looked up at him in surprise, but his face was already carefully blank. He shifted, changed the subject: “what about you?”

“Hm?”

“I mean. I don’t know how mermaids work. But, like, fish have schools, and dolphins and whales have pods. Do you have family out there?”

Prompto was quiet for a moment, swinging his foot back and forth across his view of the water below. “No,” he replied carefully. “Not any more.”

Noct reached out to touch his hand. “I’m sorry.”

He shrugged, but turned his head and gave Noct a grateful little smile. “Thanks.” He squeezed his hand and then refocused his attention on the water below. “Your question.”

He looked at Prompto seriously in the slowly pinking afternoon light. “What wish did Ardyn give you?”

Prompto’s entire body stiffened again. “Pass,” he said aggressively, swinging his legs back over the railing and jumping down. 

“You already used your pass!” Noct protested. 

Prompto was already speeding away from him — Noct hurried to catch up — “then I’m quitting the game.”

“Come on!” he pressed. “We all know each others’s stories. I just wanna know.”

“Well it’s none of your business!” Prompto snapped aggressively, whirling to face him. He poked him harshly on the chest. “And if you think all of those humans are being honest with you, then you’re wrong! Humans are filthy, lying cheats — every one of you!”

“Hey!” Noct protested. “It was just a question! You don’t have to flip out and turn on me and my whole species!”

Prompto opened his mouth to answer, but he fell silent as if someone had punched him in the chest. He wheezed as if he couldn’t get breath. 

Nice stepped closer, anxious. “Prompto? Are you okay? Is it too close to sunset, do you need water?”

He shook his head, and managed out a breathless gasp. “I have to go.”

“Go?” Noct asked in confusion. 

“Go back.” He turned and started to walk back down the pier towards the island. Toward the attraction they called home apparently. “I have to go, he’s calling me.”

“Prompto…”

He walked like he was being dragged, feet scuffing behind him with every step. Noct watched him in confusion for a couple hundred metres, then shoved his hands into his pockets. 

Well they _had_ been having a nice day. Prompto was bubbly and fun, though he had a terrible love of puns. He was open and warm, except for those couple of questions. 

He sighed. There was a song distant in the air, like a radio too far away. He could only get a vague sense of the music, but not enough to hear any of the words or even the melody. He strained to listen as he got closer to the end of the pier, but it never seemed to get any clearer. 

Shaking his head off, he stepped back through the ‘Employee Entrance’ of their sideshow attraction. 

He shuffled through to the backstage, planning to head through to the dressing rooms and find Prompto to apologise. But he froze half-hidden behind the curtain, staring. 

Prompto was partly submerged in the tank of water — mermalian again. His clothes and shoes were a messy pile on the deck. Ardyn was holding him up so his torso was fully exposed in the air with a tight grip on his hair. Their faces were curtained by his red hair — surprisingly ratty from what he’d seen of him — as he whispered in Prompto’s ear. 

Whatever he said, Prompto gave a weak sob and began to tremble. Ardyn have a dark chuckle as he pulled away from his ear. “So predictable, My Little Mermaid.” Using his grip on the blond hair, he twisted Prompto’s neck uncomfortably so his head was facing the entrance. He leaned forward and — ew, was he _licking_ up both of Prompto’s cheeks?!

But then he got why. His whole body sparkled in a familiar way — like a raindrop caught in a spiderweb, hitting the sun just right. Noct had seen it before — when he’d fed his father the mermaid tears. When the light cleared, Ardyn didn’t look so ratty any more. He looked young and refreshed. 

Feeling sick, Noct reached up to cover his mouth with a hand. Oh _gods_.

Ardyn dropped Prompto quickly, and he dropped heavily into the water of the tank with a splash. “Don’t waste any more of my precious tears, Hm? You stay under there until you feel better.” ...right. Humans couldn’t cry underwater, mermaids couldn’t either apparently. 

With the tail of his coat billowing dramatically, Ardyn turned and walked out of the room. 

Noct hurried to the edge of the tank and pressed his hand against the glass. “Prompto?” He whispered, concerned. 

In answer, the long silver tail dashed out and slammed against the glass in front of him. 

He recoiled away. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. He went to gather up the clothes. “I’ll make sure these get cleaned for you.”

Prompto didn’t seem to respond, curling into a familiar, tight coil on the bottom of the tank. 


	7. The Little Mermaid

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You can blame RikkuShinra for this chapter.
> 
> (Also I had the Cindy version of this chapter finished and then I had to rewrite it because I liked this way better.)

“Ah, Noctis.” With a shudder running through his body, he turned to look as Ardyn stride into the room. He waved one hand and the loose popcorn kernels he was tidying up from the floor all disappeared. “Come with me to my office. We have matters to discuss.”

“I’m not done for the—”

“Now, Noctis. You wouldn’t like me to lose my temper, would you?”

Gritting his jaw, Noct hung up the broom and followed the ringleader into his office. The impossibly small space was filled with a huge, ornate study, full to bursting of creepy-looking books, jars full of gross slimy things, other magic paraphernalia, and an entire wall full to bursting with tiny bottles of faintly glowing liquid Noct could now recognise as Mermaid’s Tears. 

He sat down on one side of a huge, ornate desk clear except for a single conch shell, and a tray of tea things. Ardyn sat across from him, in a throne-like chair. He gestured to the tea. “How do you take it?” He asked. 

There was something wicked in his gaze, Noct didn’t trust it. Not with a lifetime’s worth of mermaid’s tears not two feet away. 

“I’m good, thanks,” he folded his arms across his chest. “What do you want?” 

“Such a surly attitude, Noctis.” He poured himself some of the tea and leaned back in his seat to sip it. “I brought you in here to speak to you about an important matter. Something near and dear to my heart.” That last part was mocking and he smirked to himself as he sipped his tea.

“Ticket sales?” Noct deadpanned.

The ringleader laughed. He pulled a book down from one shelf and laid it out on the table before him. “Do you know it?”

The words ‘Den lille havfrue’ were incomprehensible — but the name Hans Christian Anderson was enough that the silhouette embossed in gold on the front filled in the rest. “I’ve seen the Disney movie,” he deadpanned. 

“One of my favourite adaptations,” he agreed. “But it does leave some charming aspects out. He opened the book to a page and looked at the words fondly. “It’s much the same as the adaptation you are familiar with. But the mermaid’s tongue is cut from her mouth so she is made dumb, and upon human legs every step is like stepping on the sharpest of knives, and when the prince marries another, the mermaid throws herself from his boat to her death.” With a content sigh and a smile, he closed the book. “Such a charming story. But written by the stupidity of a man with no real knowledge.”

He turned a smile to Noctis. “I want to tell you a different story now. Though you may see he parallels.”

He pulled a face. “I’m not one for fairy tales.”

Ardyn just smirked and began to speak. “One thousand years ago, there was a fine and prosperous kingdom — and to this kingdom was born two princes. The elder charming and handsome and devoted to his kingdom, the other spoiled and jealous. One evening, the younger brother stole his brother from his room, and pushed him deep out to sea in a boat…”

“Yeah, I don’t care,” Noct said, starting to his feet. 

With a gesture, the weight of the air itself became like rocks, pinning Noct back down into the seat. “No, but you’ll want to listen Noctis,” the ringleader said with a secretive smirk. “This isn’t really a story about a long lost prince. This is the story of a little mermaid who once believed in love, and how he came to be in my possession.”

Noct glared at him, but stayed silent to let Ardyn monologue on. 

  


_The boat carried the handsome prince far out to sea, until it broke upon the rocks of a reef. The prince used all his strength to pull himself up onto a rock tall enough to keep him from the high tide. And there, upon the reef, he saw the most peculiar thing._

_A beautiful mermaid, with golden hair, singing mournfully to himself as he floated on his back and looked up at the sky. The prince was enchanted by the little mermaid, and crawled as close to him as he could. “My sweet, why do you sing so sadly?”_

_And the mermaid replied: “because I am alone.”_

  


“Do you know why a mermaid sings, Noctis?”

“I didn’t even know they did,” he replied with an indifferent shrug. 

“A mermaid sings for the same reason a whale does: to call for their family, their home. They say a lonely mermaid’s song is the most heartbreaking thing you can ever hear, and you will desire to do anything you can to cheer them.”

Noct’s eyes narrow suspiciously. “Prompto doesn’t sing.”

A wicked grin crossed the ringleader’s lips, and one hand came up to stroke the spine of the conch shell. “No. No, he can’t.” He laughed to himself, then settled comfortably back into his throne-like chair. “Shall I continue?”

“You’re just gonna if I say no anyway.”

  


_“I weep to see you so sorrowful,” the prince said, reaching up to touch the most beautiful face he could ever have imagined. “If there were but something I could do. Yet I am here, with no way home.”_

_“I will take you,” volunteered the little mermaid. Though he looked much too slender to hold the prince, who was taller and broader, the little mermaid was strong. He took up the prince into his arms and swum him back to the shores of his kingdom._

_“How can I ever repay you, my sweet?” The prince asked, as he stood on the sand._

_The little mermaid looked ever so shy and hopeful. “Will you come to visit me here? I would like to see you again.” For the Prince was very handsome, and shown the little mermaid the only kindness he had known._

_The elder prince came to visit the little mermaid every day, and grew more and more enchanted. The little mermaid was like sunlight, warm and delightful as no person the prince had ever known. He told no one of his visits, but they could not remain secret forever._

_One day, the younger prince followed his brother out to the beach, and there he saw his brother’s little mermaid. He, too, was immediately enchanted by the beauty of the sea creature. But instead of love, his evil heart found greed._

_For it was known that mermaids were scarce, and their very beings imbued with magic. To possess a mermaid’s heart would grant one unimaginable magics — the power to do whatever one wanted. A mermaid’s tears could grant one everlasting youth, or so it was said._

_The young prince hatched a dastardly plan, to trick the little mermaid into becoming his own — so he could harvest a thousand years of tears and carve out the heart._

_One day, after the elder prince had left, he went to the mermaid and confessed that he had learned of his brother’s love for the mermaid. Utterly delighted by the news, the little mermaid begged him for his help — there must be some way they could be together!_

_The young prince said there was, and offered him a solution — an ancient curse from old warlocks who entrapped mermaids for their power. In exchange for the little mermaid’s song, the young prince would change him. For the price of a single kiss, the mermaid would be granted a human form and he could be with his beloved prince. The mermaid worried the spell could be broken, but the younger prince swore that the only way it could be undone was if the prince’s own blood was spilled in the name of the mermaid._

_Delighted, the little mermaid agreed — and traded away the bewitching voice for the chance to be with his love. The young prince took the little mermaid in a carriage full of salt water to their palace, and presented him to his elder brother._

_Rejoicing, the elder prince and the little mermaid swore oaths to one another. For as long as the prince should live, the little mermaid’s heart would belong to him, and remain ever at his side. To seal the oaths, the elder prince bestowed upon his little mermaid a single kiss._

_But the younger prince laughed in his victory. For he knew his elder brother’s feelings were not love, but merely an infatuation as the result of the mermaid’s natural aura. The kiss that would grant him his legs, for only one single day a time, shattered the illusion for the elder prince._

_Disgusted by the knowledge his son had been made to swear himself to a creature, the king had the little mermaid thrown into the watery depths of the dungeon. Betrayed, the elder prince stole the mermaid’s voice from his brother and cast him out into the sea to never return to his lands again and, with all hopes, perish._

_The elder prince soon discovered that he now possessed powerful magics, like before never known. For he possessed a mermaid’s heart, willingly bestowed. There is more magic in what is given willingly than what is torn out through violence. He devoured knowledge, learning all he could about mermaids and their natural magic._

_He learned swiftly of the mermaid’s tears and, deciding that he would very much like to be young and beautiful forever, he crept to the dungeon. He apologised to his little mermaid, acting as though he loved him as he believed he did when the illusion had not been broken. Weeping with joy and sorrow at his imprisonment, the little mermaid allowed the handsome prince to kiss the tears from his cheeks._

_Jealous that no one else must have this power, he sent magic out to kill every last mermaid deep below the sea. His would be the only mermaid alive, and the heart he owned would be the only one to gift such great and terrible magic._

_The elder prince became the king, and he ruled for many decades. But his court became fearful — of his beauty, and his power, and his immortality. They drove him from the kingdom, but he cared not but that he had his little mermaid bound by his side._

_Together they travelled the world, as the former king learned how to obtain more magics. The only thing comparable to the heart of a mermaid was the soul of a human, willingly traded. So he began to deal in bargains, travelling about with his mermaid — letting the whispers of mermalian magic bring forth the needy, and the desperate. With their souls, his new pets to remain by his side, he traveled about through time and space in search of the new souls to add to his collection._

  


Noct swallowed in disgust. “And the mermaid?” He asked in a hateful whisper. 

“Had sworn his oaths. Even when the former king no longer cared to maintain the pretense, he could not leave him.”

He clenched his fists tightly under the table. “Why are you telling me this?” He demanded. 

Ardyn was suddenly before him, holding him above the ground so his feet dangled uselessly. “So you understand. The little mermaid belongs to me. Every beat of his heart, every last tear that comes from his eyes.” He held a knife to Noct’s throat. “And to warn you: if you ever make him cry again, I will give you unending suffering the likes of which you can’t imagine. Not a single drop is to be wasted, let alone on a pathetic being like you.”

Noct made a strangled noise, but it must’ve been some kind of agreement — because Ardyn threw him back down into the chair. He reached up to feel his throat. 

The ringmaster straightened his coat and gave a bland smile. “Now. If you’ll excuse me. Much to do before we reopen tomorrow.” Without another glance, he strode out of the door. 


	8. Midnight

Since the pier, Noct had kinda been avoiding Prompto. He saw Prompto occasionally as he passed through the backstage, but never let himself linger. Luna was with him sometimes, the two of them laughing with each other and talking. Sometimes it was Aranea — Prompto was more subdued with her, a little restless. Once or twice he saw Ignis lingering after meal times, speaking to Prompto in a low voice about something that looked very serious. 

But then Ardyn dragged him into his office to tell his twisted fucking fairy tale. And he couldn’t sleep for thinking about it. 

Slipping out of the hammock, he shoved his feet into slippers and headed out to the backstage. It was dim, only a few lights illuminating around the tank. He expected Prompto to be sleeping, he wasn’t sure why. 

But the blond was awake, circling lazily in the water. He paused as he spotted Noct, his trailing, translucent fins drifting forward with the momentum in the water. He didn’t move until Noct started walking towards the tank. Then he kicked up and leaned his arms over the side of the tank. “Hey,” the blond greeted quietly. 

He kicked off his slippers, and rolled up his pyjama pants. He stepped onto the deck and sat on the edge, dipping his toes into the water. When Prompto didn’t complain, he slid the rest of his feet in. 

The mermaid waded over, leaning his elbows on the boards of the deck. “Isn’t it your sleep cycle?” He asked curiously. His tail stretched out across the tank, just submerged beneath the water, the fins at the end of his tail lightly lapping at the surface to cause little waves. 

“It should be,” Noct sighed. “I can’t sleep.”

“Same.” Prompto gave a playful smile. “Well, except I actually _can’t_ sleep. Not like humans.”

“Like at all?” Noct asked, surprised. 

“Iggy says I daydream,” Prompto replied, tail swishing from side-to-side once, then back to the gentle lap of the fins. “But no. I don’t sleep, not like humans do.”

Noct kicked his feet lazily, Prompto’s energy getting to him too. “Oh. Like sharks?”

“Mm. And rays.” He took a lazy lap around the pool and came back to the edge. 

“You okay?” Noct asked. “You seem… more restless than usual.” 

“I’m anxious,” Prompto whispered. “You’ve been avoiding me. And then Iggy said Ardyn was going to take you into his office today. And now you’re here.” His tail swished in the water. 

“Right.” He reached up to run a hand through his hair. “He told me.”

The fins along the sides of his tail stiffened, and his tail stilled. “What did he tell you?” He asked in an innocent tone of voice. 

He curled his toes. He almost didn’t want to answer. “About… you. How he met you. What his brother did. What he did.”

“Oh.” Prompto swum backwards, giving Noct a playful smile that didn’t touch the sadness in his eyes. “I thought he might’ve told you something interesting.”

“Prompto…” He said sadly, watching him distance himself to the other side of the tank. “You don’t have to…”

“Don’t have to what?” Prompto asked with the same fake innocence, the same playful smile. 

Noct pushed himself into the water, kicking off the edge until he glided forward to Prompto. He held his shoulders and pressed him up against the glass. “You don’t have to pretend everything is okay. When it’s not.”

He didn’t get an answer. Instead he felt something hooking around his torso and _tossing_ him away from the tank like a ragdoll. He swore as he landed hard on the ground, pain jarring all the way up his injured leg.

“Sorry! Sorry!” Prompto said frantically. “You cornered me! I’m sorry!”

“No, I’m sorry,” he replied, turning over to face the tank. “I shouldn’t have.”

Prompto looked genuinely devastated, leaning over the tank as far as he could and still keep his gills submerged. He offered one hand out to Noct. 

Noct took it and Prompto lifted him almost effortlessly. _Though he looked much too slender to hold the prince,_ Ardyn had said, _the little mermaid was strong. He took up the prince into his arms and swum him back to the shores of his kingdom._

Pushing away his thoughts, he tried to balance in his feet. He hissed in pain and tipped forward, catching himself on the edge of the tank. “Fuck fuck fuck, that hurts,” he complained, shifting all his weight onto his good leg. 

“Can you make it back into the tank?” Prompto asked. When Noct shook his head, he sighed. “Okay. Put your hands on my shoulders.”

With Noct braced, Prompto wrapped an arm around his waist and pulled him back into the water. The change in temperature had him sighing in relief. 

“Close your eyes,” Prompto murmured. 

Obediently, he did. The water lapped around him as Prompto moved, he could feel it. There was a icy stream of water washing against his leg, and it seemed to take away the fresh pain with it. 

He fluttered his eyes open and looked down into the water. Prompto’s scales were glowing a faint blue in a stripe along his spine, up his tail and across his humanesque back. There was water streaming out of his mouth, glowing the same blue that sunk into his skin. He gave a shaky gasp — and Prompto’s eyes darted up to meet his. Panic crossed his face and he darted away, glow fading quickly. He curled his tail around himself protectively. 

“Hey, hey,” Noct said, swimming a little closer to him but not enough to make him feel crowded. “It’s okay. I’m not afraid. Do you want me to go?”

Prompto gave a nervous nod and he sighed, heading back to the deck, tugging himself back up. His pyjamas were absolutely saturated. He wrung them out as much as as he could before getting to his feet. 

Prompto’s eyes tracked him back down the deck. He paused, turning back to the tank. “Hey,” he said quietly. “Wanna go to the pier tomorrow?”

Prompto stared at him a moment, then carefully nodded. 

“Okay. Goodnight. Sweet daydreams.” 

He headed back to his room, changing into dry clothes and hanging his pyjamas up to air out. He still had questions he wanted to ask Prompto. But maybe they should wait. Wait until he proved he could be trustworthy. 


	9. Another Pier

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I have been forced to rejoin the 9-5 suffering again. Updates won’t be as frequent as they have been since I started posting.

Noctis was never especially good at doing what he was told. Especially by self-inflated assholes. So, Ardyn technically owned his soul or whatever. That didn’t mean he was gonna do shit about actually obeying him. Cause fuck that guy. 

So. When he’d attempted to scare him off Prompto — because he _owned_ him — that really only solidified Noct’s vague desire of getting to know the mermaid into a determination. He _would_ befriend the mermaid. Because he wanted to, because he wasn’t allowed to, but also because if Ardyn threatened all of them like that, Prompto must be so lonely. 

He dozed on and off, never getting a real, proper sleep, and rose when the little window in their bedrooms let in too much light for him to doze off again. 

He headed out to the tank, where he found Ignis sipping coffee silently while Prompto chattered away. He stopped to watch them a long moment, until Ignis stood with a smile. “Well. I’ll leave you to Noctis “ he announced. With confident steps, he came down from the deck and walked towards the little kitchen. 

Prompto was shy — almost hesitant. “Hi.”

“Morning,” he said through a yawn. 

There was a neatly folded pile of clothes and a pair of shoes sitting beside where Ignis had a moment later. He gave a gesture at them. “Ready to go?”

“Almost,” Prompto said, and lightly tapped his lips in clarification. 

“Right.” Swallowing a little nervously, he approached the tank. He closed his eyes and leaned forward to press his lips against the mermaid’s. They really were cold, and wet — and tasted just slightly of fish. Whatever, he used to eat sashimi, he could deal. 

He kept his eyes closed until Prompto told him he could open them. His clothes were… weirdly modern. Prompto looked good in them — they fit his personality better than the shirts and trousers and suspenders of the turn of the century. 

“Are we not going to the pier?” He asked, confused. 

Prompto smiled mysteriously. “We’re going to a pier,” he confirmed. He grabbed Noct’s wrist with a cool hand and dragged him towards the door of their employee entrance. 

They stepped out onto Cottontail Pier, yeah. But not when he expected. Given the smartphones people were using to capture their moments, it had to be his own time or not long off. 

Prompto was looking around with interest, comparing this scenery to his own. “...huh,” he said. “What are they all doing with those things in their hands?” He asked at a whisper, gesturing to the nearby couple taking a selfie. 

“Taking photos,” Noct explained. 

“How?” Prompto asked, blinking. “Where’s the—” He made a gesture, sort of like an accordion, “photograph thing?”

Noct chuckled slightly. “Here.” He took his smartphone out — he’d never lost the habit of putting it in his pocket alongside his wallet. 

Thank fuck for solar charging, he might’ve died without his apps to keep him busy during slow days. He flipped open the camera app and held it up to capture a selfie of them both. Prompto was staring in fascination at their image on the screen and flinched away from the flash. The picture was actually kinda cute, Prompto’s freckled face wrinkled up slightly. 

“Don’t ask me how it works,” Noct chuckled. “It just does.”

“Can I?” Prompto asked, staring at the screen in fascination. 

“Yeah. I guess.” He handed his cell over to the mermaid and turned his attention to the nearby map. It was a revival of the old park in its heyday; but with added modern attractions like actually thrilling thrill rides, and better food trucks, and the latest in arcade games. 

Meanwhile Prompto had figured out the camera and how to switch it around — face glowing with pleasure as he took shot after shot of the world around them. 

Eventually he noticed Noct watching and put the cell down. “Uh. Sorry.” He offered it back. 

“Nah. You keep it. You’re having more fun with it than I do.” He showed him how to lock and unlock the screen, get to the camera and all that. Then he gestured to the arcade. “Wanna go try them out?” He asked. 

Prompto nodded and followed him over to the arcade. He cringed just slightly when they stepped into the air conditioned room. “It’s very loud!” he declared, shouting to be heard over the noise of the machines and the music on the speakers. 

Noct laughed. “Yeah. Sorry. It’s like that.” He led Prompto over to the token machine, using his credit card to load up a bunch of credits on his account. 

“What do I do with this?” He asked in confusion. 

“You use this instead of pennies,” he explained, leading him towards the fighting games. “See these slots? You swipe your card through it, and if you win you get tickets. If you save up all your tickets you can get a prize at the end of the day.” He pointed to the prize counter in the centre of the store. 

“Oh. Okay.” Prompto just stood and watched him at first — then joined him in a round. He was even worse at the video version than he had been with the robots at the penny arcade. 

But it only took him one test run to figure out how to ace the shooters. By the time they were hungry for lunch, he had bundles of tickets. He put some on his account, but used most of them to buy a blue and yellow saltwater fish. 

“You’re not planning to eat that are you?” Noct asked warily. 

Prompto laughed. “No. I don’t eat all fish,” he replied, nudging him in the ribs with his elbow. “So, what are we having for lunch today? Hot dogs again?” He asked, grinning at him. 

“If you want,” Noct answered. “But I was gonna get a few different things for you to try.”

Prompto just nodded. “Okay. Whatever you like!” Smiling at him, he went to take a few photos of the rides as Noct lined up to a food stand. 

He grabbed a few things Prompto just had to try — chilli fries, a corn dog, a cheeseburger slider; and later he’d buy them ice cream. He dropped it all on his credit card, and then headed back toward the mermaid. 

The blond looked up as he approached, ignoring the girls that were eyeing him appreciatively and sneaking closer. “What’s a Clarus and why is your photo saying it?”

Noct swore and took the cell, and handed over the different foods to Prompto. 

“Hey, Clarus,” he greeted. 

“Months, Noctis! You’ve been missing for months!” the man was yelling. “Where are you living? Are you okay?”

“I’m fine,” he groaned. “I told you, I wanted to get away.”

“Who are you with, you’re not in danger are you?” Clarus pressed. 

“I’m…” He paused. “I’m living with my boyfriend.”

“ _Boyfriend_?” Clarus demanded. 

“Uh-Huh. Uh. Here.” He handed the cell back to Prompto. “Say hi, Prompto.”

“Hi Prompto!” Prompto greeted brightly, holding the phone up to his ear as he had seen Noct do. “Uh-Huh.” He looked at Noct studiously a little. “I mean, he’s a little skinny but that’s not because he’s not eating.” He tilted his head to listen. “Oh, he has a job. He sells popcorn!” Prompto said it as if it was the most amazing job in the world. “No, I’m serious.” He gave Noct a confused look. “Why is he laughing?”

Noct rolled his eyes and took the phone back from Prompto. “Clarus. I’m hanging up now.” He didn’t give the other man a chance to stop laughing or say anything before he dropped the call and muted his contact. 

“He seems nice. I like these,” Prompto declared, pointing at the chilli fries. “Can Iggy make these? He should make these.”

“I think Ignis would rather swallow glass.”

“But swallowing glass is painful?” Prompto echoed, confused. 

“That’s the point.”

“Oh.” Prompto just shrugged it off. He handed Noct the chilli fries, since he was done with them apparently — and bit into the corn dog. “Oh! It’s like a hot dog, but on a stick!” he said, delighted. He liked the cheeseburger too, eating both of them without letting Noct have even a taste. 

He loved ice cream too, though he whined and clutched his head when got a headache from it until Noct taught him how to lick the roof of his mouth and get rid of it. 

They walked through the town at the start of the pier. Noct bought a couple of outfits so he didn’t have to wear his suit any more, some gifts for their friends, and gave Prompto his very own Polaroid camera. 

They wandered back towards the door-to-nowhere they’d come through as the sun sank. Noct was stuck carrying everything while Prompto darted about taking Polaroids. 

Before they reached the door, Prompto grabbed his arm. “Come on!” he said eagerly. “Let’s get one together!”

He entrusted his camera to a nearby dazzled tourist, and threw his arms around Noct in a hug for her to take the photo. 

Back inside, Prompto took his fish back from Noct and smiled at him softly. “Thanks, Noct. I had a fun day today.”

“Me too. We should do it again soon. My place or yours.” 

Prompto beamed at that. He paused to tip the damsel fish into his own tank, and shimmied out of his clothes. 

Noct definitely kept his eyes above the waist. No matter how tempting it was to check if he was an anatomically correct human in this form. 

Prompto slid into the water, and it began to bubble turbulently, a familiar blue glow consuming his body and stretching out to form his tail. When the water was clear again, he swum playfully around, chasing the damsel. 

“Night, Prompto. See you at the show.”

Prompto waved at him with a brilliant smile, then turned his attention back to his fish. 


	10. Alone

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Minor violence and blood in this chapter. Ardyn.

Ignis looked up from the pancakes he was mixing, his expression struck with pain. 

“Specs?” Noct asked, uncertain about the sudden change in behaviour. 

“...you shouldn’t have let Prompto bring home the fish.” Ignis set down his whisk and took a few deep breaths, as he seemed to shake off the vision or whatever he’d just experienced. Then he raised his head, felt for the whisk again, and resumed stirring. “You should go fishing today. Catch us all something for dinner. I have an excellent pan-fried fish recipe that I have just the right ingredients for.”

He perked up at the idea. “Yeah! Okay. I’ll take Prompto down to the beach.”

“No,” Ignis said quietly, shaking his head in firm denial. “Not today. Another time, perhaps.”

Noct thought about arguing — but then he remembered it had been two weeks since Ardyn had bugged Prompto and figured maybe Prompto would be too upset to want to hang out. 

So he headed out with his fishing gear, and found a small dock down the beach a little. It was near sunset when he returned, fish slung over his shoulder for Ignis to prepare. When he stopped into the Employee’s Only entrance, he heard the scream. 

“Ardyn! Don’t! Please, don’t! She’s just a helpless pet!”

Noct rushed through the curtain, just in time to see their ringleader crushing something under his foot and grinding it into the ground. Prompto wailed — a scream of grief, and loss, and pain. 

_You shouldn’t have let Prompto bring home the fish_ , Ignis had warned. Then why hadn’t he **done** anything if he’d seen this coming?!

Prompto slumped over the edge of the tank, body shaking with loud, agonising sobs. 

Ardyn smiled to himself and placed a floating bowl beneath his slumped body. 

“It’s a lesson you’ll never learn, isn’t it, my little mermaid? If you open yourself to caring for something, you only give me more power to crush you.” He stroked fingers through the damp blond hair. Leaning down, he kissed away one of his tears. He straightened as he glowed with their magic, removing his hand from the hair. “Let yourself feel it, I’ll happily replenish my supply.”

Noct was frozen where he stood, watching with horror and disgust as Ardyn walked past him. 

He patted Noct’s cheek as he passed. “Barramundi. Quite the catch. You’ll all feast well tonight.” And then he slipped out of the curtain and disappeared into the dark. 

He dropped the fish out of his hand and rushed over to Prompto’s side. The mermaid was slumped, almost deadweight. Soft sniffles escaped him, but otherwise he didn’t move. 

“Prompto…” He whispered. 

“Go away.” The blond’s eyes were locked on a small mess of colour on the ground where Ardyn had been standing. Tears glittered as they dripped off his face and into the waiting bowl. “Just go.”

He reached out hesitantly, then pressed his hand against the scaled forearm. “Is that what you want? To be left alone?”

Prompto gave a weak sob, turning his face away. “No. I’m so tired of being _alone_ , Noctis.”

“Then I’ll stay with you.” He prepared to settle on the edge of the deck. 

But Prompto stopped him with a hand. “No,” he said quietly. “You don’t… you don’t understand.”

“Then tell me,” he insisted. 

“I like you, Noctis,” he said, his voice wounded. “You’re nice, and fun to spend time with, and pretty, and sometimes you smell like fish which I like.”

Why did he focus on ‘pretty’? Face feeling hot with a blush, he asked: “but?”

“You shouldn’t get involved, Noct. Ardyn… Ardyn will destroy you. A human’s soul is immortal — he doesn’t need you alive. He won’t hesitate.”

“Are you telling me to stay away to protect me, Prompto?” He asked softly. 

“I’m not that selfless,” he replied. “He’s already used you as a threat. I don’t want to grow close to you only to hurt.”

“But you’re tired of being alone,” Noct pointed out, his stomach twisting at his words. 

“I’m the last mermaid in the world. My heart and my song belong to a man whose only desire is to live forever as the most powerful magician who's ever lived. I _am_ tired.” He gave a twisted smile. “But mermaids don’t sleep.”

Noct reached up to touch his face, brush his thumb across the scattering of scales across his cheekbone like freckles. “What do you want, Prompto? Tell me what you want.”

“I want to go _home_ ,” he whimpered. “You don’t know the ocean, Noct. It’s a living, thriving thing. The tides, the plankton, fish, the mammals — even the coral is alive. You can never be alone in the ocean. Not really.”

Noct his eyes for a long moment, saw the pain and the longing there. “Okay.” He stepped back and picked up the floating bowl. 

“...Noct?” Prompto asked, confused. 

“Just trust me,” he replied, his voice soft. “I know that’s a big ask. After all that humans, and all Ardyn has done to you, you have no reason to trust anyone. No reason to trust me. But please.”

Sharp teeth sunk into the plump lower lip. “...I’ll try.”

Noct gave him a smile and turned away, striding with the bowl towards Ardyn’s office. 

The voice was amused as he called: “enter.”

He pushed the door open and came over, throwing the bowl roughly into the desk. A single raised finger had it steadying before it could spill. “Temper, temper.”

“Let him go.”

Ardyn sat back in his throne-like chair, wiggling his fingers in a complicated dance to make the tears rise from the bowl and move themselves into the little clear bottles that stoppered and settled themselves into the stuffed shelf behind him. “And why should I do that, Noctis?” He asked, still amused. 

“Because I said so. And you’ll figure out a price for me to pay.” He said stubbornly, raising his chin. 

Ardyn chuckled, sending the bowl back to one of the bookshelves. “It’s Noctis Lucis Caelum, isn’t it?” He asked, smirking with some kind of secret knowledge. 

“Uh. Yeah.” He wrinkled his face up in confusion. Why did that matter?

“That’s a very old, very noble name. What do you know of your family history?” He asked, leaning across the table. 

“Fucked if I know. Who _cares_? Just name your fucking price, Ardyn.”

The ringleader laughed as he settled back in his seat. “Such a temper.” He watched Noctis intently. “I’ll do this. Mostly because I know for a fact this won’t end well. And the price I ask is a very simple one.”

Noct narrowed his eyes at him. “Name it.”

A wicked-looking dagger appeared in Ardyn’s hand in a crystalline red light. “If you want me to grant my little mermaid a holiday — you will cut yourself and spill your blood for him.”

Gross. “Why? What’s the blood gonna he used for?” He asked suspiciously. 

“Blood is very powerful, Noctis Lucis Caelum. It has ties to life. Ties to family and history.” He smiled, something wicked in the curl of his lips. “But I just need you to spill it, you can clean it up and take it away if you’re so concerned about it being ill used.”

Noct reached forward and grabbed the knife. He ran it across the fleshy part of his forearm, where there were no veins to nick. He hissed in pain — it stung. 

But he _felt_ something throbbing through the room as bright red bloom over his arm in a thin line. 

Ardyn pushed a box of tissues over to him, laughing to himself. Then he rose to his feet. “Let’s go then. I have a little mermaid to return to the sea.”


	11. Catch and Release

Prompto looked up when Ardyn strode in, Noct hot on his heels. With a curl of his finger, Ardyn commanded Prompto to raise out of the water. Giving Noct an uncertain look, he lifted his head and shoulders above the waterline. “Ardyn?”

“My sweet, little mermaid,” he replied, his lip curling up in a cruel smirk. “You’ve managed to get another human to bargain for your reprieve.”

Prompto gave a shaky gasp. “No…” He whispered, darting his eyes fearfully towards Noct. 

He wondered why, until Ardyn laughed. “Not bargained for his life, this time,” he replied. “I had something else in mind for the price.”

Noct felt momentarily sick. Prompto had someone _die_ before, to give him his freedom? 

He stepped forward protectively when Ardyn gripped Prompto’s hair in a tight fist. But the man flashed him a grin before he arched the mermaid’s head aside and smashed their lips together in a biting, invading kiss. He swallowed down anger and made himself step back. Okay, he was just giving him his legs. 

Prompto’s hands gripped in the fabric over Ardyn’s shoulders, a longing sort of whimper escaping his throat. He pressed into the kiss, eyes fluttering closed. 

Noct felt an angry twist in his stomach, fists bunching at his sides. He knew Prompto probably couldn’t _help_ it, his heart belonged to Ardyn in some sort of magically binding way. But it made him _pissed_ , that Ardyn would use him that way. 

Ardyn yanked Prompto back, their lips disengaging with a slick noise. There was a soft little smile on his face, crinkling his pretty blue eyes. But it slowly fell, as he waited. He looked down at his tail, and gave a low whimper of confusion. “You… How did you…?”

Ardyn yanked his head around, twisting it painfully so he was looking at Noctis. “Don’t tell me you never noticed the resemblance, my little mermaid.”

Prompto’s eyes trailed down to his arm, folded up to hold the tissue in place. “No…” He said, eyes growing shiny and wet. 

“Don’t cry, my little mermaid. I told you not to waste any more tears on _him_.” 

As Ardyn’s hands gripped Prompto’s shoulders, and Noct jolted forward protectively — only to slam against a sudden wall of red crystal light. In a swift movement, Ardyn hoisted the mermaid out of the water and tossed him onto the wooden floor. 

Prompto gasped, his tail flopping desperately, gills flaring in a panicked search for water. Noct’s stomach clenched, he knew what a fish out of water _looked like_ , he was a fisherman. 

And then Ardyn started walking away. 

“Wait! He can’t _breathe_!” Noct shouted, fighting against the barrier. 

The ringleader only yanked open the curtain. “Gladiolus!” he yelled, in a sing-song voice. 

Gladio looked reluctant and angry as he entered, but when he saw Prompto flopping on the floor he rushed over. 

“Throw him off the pier, strongman. Quickly, before he suffocates.” Ardyn laughed, tracking Gladio as he hoisted Prompto up into his arms and ran from the room. 

Noct had been pressed up against the magic barrier — and when it vanished he tipped forward onto his hands and knees. The floor was still wet in patches where Prompto had been lying on the ground. 

He started to push himself up, but he felt a boot pressing down on his back. The weight forced him flat on the floor. “What the fuck?” He hissed, with as much breath as he could manage. 

“I’m not done with you yet,” the ringleader said. 

“I already paid my price,” he bit out angrily. 

“Yes you did,” Ardyn agreed calmly. “But I still need my main attraction.”

“What?” He demanded roughly. 

Ardyn hoisted him up by the shirt and tossed him into the tank, water splashing out onto the ground. He clawed back up to the surface, hacking water out of his throat. 

“I couldn’t care less about popcorn sales, Noctis,” he replied. “What I need is a mermaid to show off.”

“So?” He demanded. “What’s that got to do with me?”

“You’re just as stupid as he was,” Ardyn said, amused. He cupped Noct’s cheek — eyes beginning to glow golden. 

He lost focus when a burning pain consumed his lower half. He writhed, but the hand on his face kept him from moving away. 

When the pain faded, he felt cramped inside the tank. He looked down at himself, saw a long black tail with flared fins in an rich, almost luminescent blue. Confused, he twirled around to try and get a better look. But he overbalanced and tipped back into the water. He gasped and spluttered, but it didn’t make him drown like he thought it would. It flowed as naturally into his lungs as air had before. His hair swirled in his face and he shoved it back to glare up at Ardyn. 

The ringleader twirled his fingers through the water, and Noct could _taste_ him tainting it. He bared his teeth threateningly. 

Ardyn’s laugh was clear as air. He withdrew his hands. “Spend the day getting used to your new body, Noctis. I want you on show tonight.” Then he began to walk away. 

He muscled his way up to the surface of the water, inhaling water so he could shout at him. “You can’t keep me here!” he snarled. 

Ardyn laughed again. It sounded weirdly muffled — like he’d expected it to do under water. He turned back to look at him. “I can and will, Noct.” He approached the tank again, looking at him with a cruel smirk. “Last time, Prompto was gone for two centuries,” he explained. “You won’t live that long. Your body is changed, but you’re not a true mer. Unless he’s had a change of heart — and given it is in _my_ possession, I know it hasn’t.” He laughed again. “ _I_ have enough tears to last me two hundred years. You can spend the rest of your life in this tank. And then I’ll keep your soul in my collection.” He patted Noct’s cheek patronisingly. “Cry if you want. They’re useless, I don’t care.”

Noct glared at him as he walked away, letting his weight carry him down to the bottom of the tank.

The thought shouldn’t hurt so much. That he might never see Prompto again. 

He wriggled free of the tangle of his long tail, physically picking it up to move it out of the way. 

He’d given Prompto an opportunity for a little bit of freedom. And he hadn’t even got to say goodbye. 


	12. Show (Don’t Tell)

Noct wasn’t sure he hated being a mermaid. Being stuck in a tank that was wasn’t long enough to hold his full length from fingertips to tail fins sucked. But he was never a really active person anyway — he missed fishing, but his smartphone was waterproof. He could still play his games, as long as Specs or Gladio could be convinced to take his phone and set it on a windowsill to solar charge. He could still sleep, so when he got bored he just curled up and had a nap. And his leg didn’t hurt any more. (Because he didn’t have legs. Duh.) 

But even he started going a little stir-crazy. He couldn’t imagine how Prompto, who was always buzzing with energy, could stand to stay put inside the confined space for most hours of the day. 

Ardyn told him about the others Prompto had seduced to give him a vacation back in the sea. The first was a woman named Cindy, who had been taken in by his Glimmer. When he’d been given his freedom, he’d kissed her so they could spend the day together (“the first of many, he hoped”) — and her last moments were disgust before Ardyn took her life as payment. (Ardyn had to call him back using his song after that. He wasn’t prepared with enough tears for as long as Prompto felt like going.) 

The second had been a reporter, a man named Dino. Prompto had done away with his Glimmer quickly — (“he always does now, after Cindy”) but Dino had still liked him. Had negotiated Prompto’s return to the ocean, not realising it was his life footing the bill. Prompto had disappeared into the sea, before he could cry. (Ardyn had been well prepared with enough tears to last that time — “but he came back of his own power. He always will, in his time.”) 

Noct was glad, at least, that Ardyn hadn’t killed him to free Prompto. Just shoved him in a tank like a sort of understudy he hadn’t rehearsed for. Was that what he’d been cut for? Did spilling his blood for Ardyn give him power over his body? 

(Part of him said no. That the way the two of them had talked about it after the kiss meant that somehow Noct had done that. Would Prompto never get to walk again? But what did that have anything to do with him?) 

They left Cottontail Island. Back on the road as a travelling circus. 

The water got stale. Stagnant. He couldn’t breathe it properly though his gills — like it was too thick. He spent almost all of his time lying on the bottom of the tank, drifting in and out of heavy sleep. (Not during showtime. Ardyn made sure he always swam about to look realistic, though he never attempted Prompto’s daring jumps.) Sometimes stirring the water with his tail fin to try and mix some oxygen in. 

This experience was teaching him so much more about Prompto. Like now he knew first hand why their first few months they’d barely interacted because he was _too exhausted_ to do anything more than stare at his friends when they went past. 

Ignis frequently came to visit, to try and hold a conversation. When he had enough oxygen, he used to pull himself up to chat back. Nowadays he just laid down and listened. 

(Ignis promised he wasn’t going to die in this tank. But he couldn’t say how long he be there. Just that he’d foreseen Prompto returning before then.)

So he waited, knowing eventually Prompto would come back, but no idea when.

  


They were somewhere near a beach. Gladio had carried in barrels of fresh sea water in and changed out his water. He breathed deeply, relieved. 

Then the rest of the show gathered around his tank, giving him an apologetic look. 

“Ardyn has commanded us to go out and enjoy the city,” Ignis explained, pushing up his dark shades.

“Dunno what he’s got planned,” Gladio grunted. “Just… watch out for yourself, okay?”

He gave them a lazy thumbs up, enjoying the wash of fresh seawater through his gills. Whatever Ardyn was planning, he’d make sure it happened anyway. There was no point to trying to cut him off before it started. Only messing with his plans while they were happening. 

The room was dark after they left, the lights dimming down to almost nothing. He swum around the tank as much as he could, not that there was much space. But he felt alive for the first time in — months? Had it been months? A year? He couldn’t tell any more. 

The curtain opened, and a silhouetted figure stood in the threshold. He squinted at the figure. The shape of him was somehow familiar, but he couldn’t pick why. It wasn’t Ardyn, not tall enough to be Specs or Gladio. 

He twisted to face the entrance, hair swishing into his face again. He huffed and swept it out of his eyes. 

The figure limped forward, slowly coming into the pool of light hanging above his tank. He gasped water into his lungs. 

Prompto stood half-in shade. He was dressed in an ill-fitting trench coat. His legs poking out the bottom were covered in silver scales, and his hands and cheeks were dusted by scales instead of freckles. 

He kicked to the surface, gripping the edge of the tank. “ _Prompto_!” 

The blond limped painfully forward, as if both feet hurt. He raised his hand to press webbed fingers against his cheek. He took a shaky breath and mouthed Noct’s name — but nothing but air came out. 

He leaned into the touch. “You came back.” He whispered. 

Prompto’s brow wrinkled slightly but he nodded. His fingers gently stroked his cheek, and his eyes wandered pointedly down to his tail. 

He twitched it, flaring the fins slightly. “Yeah. It’s a shapeshift. Ardyn said he still needed his main attraction.” 

There was deep pain and longing in Prompto’s eyes as he took in his altered body. 

“...oh,” he said softly. “I didn’t think… how painful this must be for you.” Prompto was the last of his kind. Had been for nearly two thousand years. How much must it be tearing him up to see him like this? 

Prompto gave a sad smile and shrugged, his webbed hand dropping down by his side. He tugged his (probably stolen) coat close around his frame. 

“Did you enjoy your trip home?” He asked. Prompto didn’t answer, just watched him with his arms hugged around his chest. “I’m doing okay here. It’s not so bad for me. I can still sleep, so that’s mostly what I do. Gladio brought me seawater today.” 

Prompto inhaled shakily and sighed it out in a heavy breath. He leaned his forehead against Noct’s for a long moment, staring into his eyes intently. 

Sensing the tension of the moment, he leaned forward to press their lips together. But Prompto drew back. Noct sunk deeper into the water and covered his face in shame.

“Wow. Okay. I’m sorry. I misread the moment.” 

Prompto chuckled silently. He stroked his fingers across the fin by Noct’s ear softly, and stepped back. Noct peeked through his fingers as Prompto turned and painfully limped in the direction of Ardyn’s office. 


	13. Until Dawn

Prompto’s eyes were red and his face was puffy as he limped back out of the office, Ardyn’s laughter echoing out behind him.

Noct leaned up out of the tank. “Prompto?” He pressed. “Did he call you back or something?”

Prompto just shook his head. He offered Noct a hand, eyes soft as he looked at him. 

Noct lifted his hand out of the water, the fins on the underside of his forearms sagging in the air. He placed his hand in Prompto’s. “What’s going on?”

His violet-blue eyes stared into Noct’s. “Deep breath,” he breathed, still silent of any sound other than the air. 

He frowned in confusion, but when Prompto inhaled deeply to demonstrate. Drawing the water deep in through his gills. 

Prompto wrapped his arm around Noct’s waist and hoisted him out of the water. He felt suffocated as soon as his gills left the waterline, but he tried to think like he was holding his breath. Prompto’s other arm lifted under his tail, easily holding his weight. 

Prompto’s steps were quick, but heavy with pain. As they passed through the curtain, they were suddenly standing at the end of a fishing dock. Prompto quickly knelt abs carefully slid Noct into the water. 

He sunk under the surface closing his eyes in bliss. He realised he’d never actually been in the ocean before. Even fresh seawater in the tank was _nothing_ to this. 

It was like mountaintop spring water after drinking chemical saturated tap water for your whole life. Or trying Iggy’s grilled barramundi after a lifetime of frozen fish fingers. But it was so much _more_. 

Prompto had told him, before he left, that he didn’t know the ocean. How alive it was. And now he _understood_. 

It was alive. “ _You can never be alone in the ocean_ ,” Prompto had said, “ _not really_.” He could feel the movements of the animals within, the tide and the waves themselves. How could Prompto go back into the tank after this?

Reminded, he swished his tail and broke the surface of the water. His eyes adjusted to the changing path of light and he searched for the blond. 

Prompto was naked, the coat covering his lap. The scales followed the same path as they did when he was mermalian — the only real difference between his natural form and this was the shape of his legs. 

“You coming in?” Noct asked, lapping his tail to keep him afloat. 

Sharp teeth nipped at his plump lower lip, and he nodded carefully. He held his hands out for help and Noct swum closer until his hands settled on his shoulders. 

Prompto eased his feet into the water — and immediately began to writhe with pain. He slid his lower half into the water, and Noct held him tight until he could see the gills at his waist working. Then he lowered them both beneath the waves. 

Submerged, Prompto’s screams of pain had sound. He held him tight, as his body writhed — his legs fusing together, bones snapping into new positions, stretching almost twice as long as his legs. 

Eventually he quietened, and lifted his head to give Noct a weak smile. “Thanks.”

“What was that about?” Noct asked. “What’s going on?”

He gave a weak smile. “It’s a lot more difficult to make legs without the other curse,” he replied. “Slicing your tail in half with a sword blessed by a sea witch, every step feels like standing on a knife.” He shrugged. “But I didn’t have another choice.”

“That wasn’t what I was asking but — holy _fuck_ Prompto.” Why would he even do that to himself?

Prompto shrugged and, twisting elegantly through the water, swum away. “Come on. Ardyn gave us until sunrise, and then we have to be back.”

“We?” Noct echoed, confused. 

“Yeah. Us.” He offered his hand back to Noct. “Come on. I wanna show you someplace special to me.”

“Okay. I’m not that great at swimming,” he said, wrapping his hand around Prompto’s wrist. “But lead the way.”

“Just kick your tail when I do, I’ll aim.”

They traveled deep into the dark see, until not even the full moon could pierce the dark. But a stripe down Prompto’s back and his trailing fins began to glow, so it wasn’t too dark for them. 

Until they went deep, deep down — and small patches of luminous coral began to grow more and more frequent.

“Ready?” Prompto asked. 

“Uh… yes?”

Prompto slipped in between a crevice, and after a few turns they came out in an underwater cove. Noct’s hand slipped from Prompto’s as his jaw dropped. 

It was like a small village, built and carved from the luminescent coral. It was too geometric to be natural — but it had signs of erosion from the water. 

“Prompto?”

“This is where I grew up,” the blond explained in a soft voice. Knitted with old grief. “Before they drove me out,” he said quietly. 

He reached over to gently touch Prompto’s shoulder. “Thank you. For trusting me enough to bring me here.”

Prompto delicately wrapped the end of his tail around Noct’s. “Thank _you_. For proving I can trust you.”

Noct rested his head against Prompto’s shoulder gently, hair gently wafting in the mild current — like a slight breeze. “Why don’t you show me your secret hiding place?” He suggested quietly. “Every kid has one for humans.”

Prompto gave his bubbly little chuckle and tugged him by the tail. “Come on then. This way.”


	14. Shore

They were lying among the colourful plumes of coral, laughing quietly and making shapes out of the swimming schools of fish. It had been a good night. Just like their days on the pier. He liked spending time with Prompto. And if he got little sparks of pleasure every time their hands brushed, that was nobody’s business. (Prompto had rejected him, only a handful of hours ago, when he’d moved in for a kiss. He wasn’t gonna try again.)

“Hey, Prompto?” He asked, when their laughter quietened down. 

“Mm? Yeah, Noct?” He answered, turning his head to look at him. 

“How’d you get a blessed sword if all the mermaids died?”

Prompto looked away with a sigh, up at the flitting fish. “I bargained for it, when I was still… when Ardyn and I…” He shuddered slightly, reaching to hug himself. “I never had to, Somnus had another deal for me.” He flicked his tail up, splaying the fins and watching them drift in the current. “So I hid it away. I never thought I’d have to use it.”

Noct shifted over to wrap his arm around him, comforting him since he didn’t seem bothered by the temperature of the water. “I’m sorry you had to. It must’ve hurt so much, I can’t even imagine…”

Prompto smiled slightly, reaching up to stroke over his cheek. “You’re so kind, Noctis. I’m glad I met you. I began to think there were no kind souls in the whole world.”

“You’re kind,” Noct pointed out. 

Prompto laughed slightly. “I don’t know about that.”

Before he could answer, Noct heard the most heartwrenching sound. He gasped and turned towards it, feeling it like a physical pain in his chest. “What’s that?” He asked, his voice breaking. 

Prompto gave a quiet sigh of defeat. “I forgot. You’ve never heard it properly before.” He pushed up from the coral bank and offered Noct a hand. “It’s Ardyn. He’s calling us back.”

Noct clawed at his chest, as if he could rip the pain out. “ _Gods_ ,” he gasped. “Does it always hurt you this much?”

“No,” Prompto said quietly. “It’s much worse. It’s… it’s my voice. So it sounds like my _pod_.” Shaking his head, he took Noct’s wrist and began swimming them towards the sound. “When they pushed me out, they changed their song. But to me, that sounds like my pod. The mermaids I grew up with. You can’t imagine how much it aches.”

Noct was quiet at that. What could he even say? Instead, he just gave Prompto’s wrist a comforting squeeze. 

He was so drawn in by the song, he didn’t notice the sky above the water getting lighter. And then he jerked to a stop with a cry of pain as a burning sensation consumed his tail. “Prom!”

“Sunrise,” Prompto murmured in realisation. He grabbed Noct about the waist and kicked hard, until they burst into the surface. Noct gasped in the fresh air but it wasn’t quite right. Not yet. 

He squirmed out of Prompto’s hold until he could sink below the water again, inhaling the water deeply. 

“Noct,” Prompto said. His voice was sort of muffled by the water, but still sounded so desperate. “Noct, please listen to me. While I can still talk to you.”

He nodded in response, seizing in pain as his tail began to crush up and shrink. 

“I… I did this for you, Noct. I’m sorry — I couldn’t let you spend your whole life in that tank. Not you.”

Noct opened his mouth to reply, but water flooded his mouth and suddenly he was drowning in it. Struggling, he fought to the surface and gasped in precious _air_. He flailed to stay afloat, but then Prompto’s arms were around him, holding him secure above the waterline. 

The pain eventually receded, lingering only as an old, familiar ache in his knee. Panting, he leaned forward against Prompto to catch his breath. 

When he could hold himself up, he shifted backward and treaded water to keep afloat. “What were you saying?” He asked. 

Prompto looked pained, breath escaping parted lips in a soundless little whimper. He just shook his head. 

Oh. Prompto couldn’t talk above water?

He could feel a pull in his chest towards the shoreline, but it wasn’t so painful now. Not for him at least. “We… we should get back.”

Prompto nodded. Silently, he shifted behind Noct and held him securely in his arms, swimming towards the beach. 

As they got closer, in the early dawn light he could see Ardyn standing at the end of the fishing dock — a conch shell held to his lips. 

When he lowered it as they got closer, the tug in his chest stopped. Some of the tension in Prompto’s shoulders eased. 

“Pushing for time, aren’t you?” Ardyn said mockingly as they reached the dock. 

Prompto gave him a tired glare and lifted Noct up so he was sitting on the edge of the boards. The jeans he’d been wearing before his transformation were now soaked and clinging tight and uncomfortable to his skin. 

“I hope you enjoyed your last day of freedom, my little mermaid. You know the deal.”

Prompto gave a weary nod. 

“You can return to the tent, Noctis,” Ardyn said dismissively. “Fetch Gladiolus if you want.”

He produced a fishing net from the folds of his coat and tossed it into the water. Noct could only stare in horror as he began to drag Prompto out of the water, tangled up inside the net. 

“H-hey! Wait… he can’t…”

“Breathe, yes, I know. You’re so repetitive.” Ardyn ignored his plea otherwise dragging Prompto across the boards of the dock towards the open flap of the tiny tent. 

Noct rushed inside, yelling for Gladio. The muscleman was waiting just inside the entrance, and once Ardyn passed through he gave the ringleader a hateful glare and lifted Prompto up. 

Noct just watched as he lowered the mermaid back into the tank and began to untangle the net. Once Prompto was free, he just sunk to the bottom and curled up inside his tail. 

He limped over and knelt beside him, pressing his hand against the glass beside him. “Oh, Prompto…”

The mermaid gave him a pained look and turned away, hiding in the curl of his tail. 


	15. Swimming In Circles

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Briefly mentioned animal cruelty

Aranea was standing just inside the threshold of the curtain when Noct came in. Her expression was blank as she watched Prompto in the tank. Her eyes tracked his movement — swimming a loop from the top left corner, across the surface, down to the bottom right corner, twisting to swim facing the roof across the bottom, and then up to the top left corner again. 

“Aranea?” Noct asked, confused. 

“I used to keep horses,” she said, her voice quiet and sad. “There was one gelding that was too old to ride. He used to spend all day just pacing back and forward along the fence. Back and forth and back and forth.” Her eyes followed Prompto’s loop, expression not changing. 

“Uh… Okay?” He replied, confused about this sudden personal history. 

“They called them stable vices,” she replied. “The groom recommended we put him out to pasture.” Her hand gripped into a tight fist by her side. “My mother shot him — the horse, not the groom.”

“ _Six_ ,” Noct hissed, glaring at her. “What the fuck?”

“Mm. It made sense to her. She thought it was cruel, to keep an animal alive when it was losing its mind to confinement.”

“Seriously?”

“I didn’t say I agreed with her.”

Ignis stepped up on Noct’s other side, his expression grim. “They call it zoochosis too, or Stereotypy more scientifically. When an animal exhibits repetitive behaviours not otherwise observed in the wild. Large cats tend to pace endlessly back and forth, birds pluck their feathers, and… and seals swim in endless loops.”

Okay. That made him catch on. “He’s not an _animal_ , guys!” he huffed angrily. 

“It’s also been observed in humans, after long periods of confinement,” Ignis continued. “But the fact remains the same: he’s not doing okay, Noctis.”

He bunched his fists and took a deep breath. “...yeah,” he said eventually. “I know.” He swallowed the painful lump in his throat. “I just… I don’t know what to do.”

“I used to take him down the pier,” Aranea said quietly. “When he was like this. Restless.” She sighed. “But the kiss doesn’t work any more. I tried that.”

“All we can do is attempt to provide him more stimulation,” Ignis replied. “But we must try.”

“Can’t we just get Muscles to carry him down the beach for a swim?” 

Ignis pushed up his shades. “No,” he said heavily. “He has terms of agreement with Ardyn. He cannot leave.”

She sighed again. “I’ll look out and see if we’ve got any board games.”

  


Noct came back in with his catch. He’d given one to Specs to make dinner with, but the rest were a present for Prompto to eat. 

They’d all been trying. Gladio sat on the deck to read Prompto books. Ignis couldn’t play board games with the rest of them, but he sat with Prompto and just spoke to him. The group gathered almost every night for some kind of game — board games or card games or a truly disastrous attempt at charades. (Gestures were not universal and they had different pop cultures.)

Prompto did not get Monopoly at all. And he couldn’t read so Scrabble was also out. He was surprisingly adept at Clue however. He enjoyed Shoots and Ladders too.

But it wasn’t exactly working. Prompto was always attentive when he had visitors, but as soon as they left it was back to the endless loops of his tank. 

He thought maybe some fresh fish to eat might cheer Prompto up. He’d wanted to bring him some human food they’d tried on the pier, but he wasn’t sure his digestive system could handle it. 

But in an eerie moment of dejavu, when he stepped into the back area of the big top, it was to see Ardyn hoisting Prompto to his level. He paused to watch, ready to interfere if he had to. 

The ringleader, stringy hair hanging in his face, looked angry. He clenched the mermaid’s hair tight enough that a few strands were tangled in his fingers. But Prompto was blank faced — eyes on Ardyn’s face, but unfocused like he wasn’t really paying attention to him. 

Ardyn shoved him back under the water. “Fine!” he snarled. “Play this game. I have plenty in reserve. We’ll see who outlasts the other.”

Prompto didn’t respond, just started his endless loop around the tank. Ardyn spat towards him in distaste and stalked back to his office. 

Noct took a deep breath and headed over to the tank. He kicked his shoes off and dipped his feet into the water, waiting. Prompto swam over and lifted his head and shoulders out of the water, smiling at him. It didn’t touch the dullness in his eyes though. 

“Hey.” He greeted, opening his bag. “I caught you some walleye. It’s the only fish I could think of you might not have had a chance to try.”

He ran his eyes over the fish in his bag and idly licked his lips. Noct laughed and handed them over. 

They were rather small so Noct chose not to watch him feed. There were never extra fish bones anywhere so he really didn’t want that mental image forever lodged in his brain. 

He assumed after he was finished — Prompto swam over and gently rested his head against Noct’s knee. He smiled and looked down at him. “Hey. D’you like it? Walleye’s a lot sweeter than most ocean fish.”

Prompto just nodded at him with a content little smile. 

“I’m glad…” He paused, then shifted a dripping lock of hair out of hair out of Prom’s eyes. “I know you’ve been struggling lately. I just… thought I’d try and treat you.”

Prompto reached up to gently brush his cheek with cold, damp fingers. 

“I’m sorry,” he said, pressing into the touch. “I didn’t know what it would do to spill my blood. I… I wish I hadn’t done it. I hate that you’re trapped here.”

Prompto’s thumb stroked over his cheek and he shook his head slightly. 

“Of course it’s my fault,” Noct disagreed. “If it wasn’t for me, you’d still be able to walk around and play in the world.”

Prompto sighed and shook his head again, looking over in the direction Ardyn had left. 

“Okay. Yeah. It’s mostly Ardyn’s fault. But it’s mine too.” Prompto just shook his head at him again with a quirk of a smile. He gave another gentle stroke across Noct’s cheek and then retreated back into the water. 

“Thirty minute call!” Ardyn yelled from the corridor. “Suit up, my little ones! The show must go on!”

Noct sighed sadly and pulled his feet out of the tank. “See you later, Prom.”

Prompto lifted a hand and wriggled webbed fingers in a little wave. 


	16. Dreaming

Noct slipped silently into the ringmaster’s office, while he was busy with the show. There had to be something he could do. Some way he could help Prompto. It was a lot creepier than when Ardyn was in there, and he hadn’t thought that was possible. The jars and crystals were glowing a sickly red colour, and the parts inside the jars were squirming. 

The conch shell wasn’t sitting on the desk where he’d seen it last, and he muttered a curse. He’d been hoping it would be there for him to destroy. 

He wandered along the shelves, looking for something useful. It was too much to hope for to find a book that said ‘How To Defeat An Evil Maniac’, unfortunately. But maybe there was something about mermaids. 

There was a _lot_ of books about mermaids. And most of them looked fictional and useless. He sighed and turned away in irritation. The show wouldn’t last forever, he needed to hurry. 

Something caught his eye. There was a large mirror in a fancy gold frame across the room — but there was a soft glow coming out from behind the frame. Confused, he stepped across the room to it and pushed it aside with his hand. 

There was a recessed shelf behind the mirror, a few random-looking items scattered along the wood. An old leather-bound book with rough pages, a wicked-looking dagger, a tarnished crown, a silver box locked light with old fashioned padlocks and chains — and the source of the glowing. A crystal ball made of some sort of blue, translucent stone in a stand, filled with swirling silvery light. 

Hesitant, he reached forward to press his fingertips to the surface of the stone. Something shot through him like electricity and he yelped in pain, jerking his hand back. His hand glowed with silvery light, the sphere now dull, and his skin hurt as the light sunk into his flesh.

He heard the audience cry out in delight — the familiar sound of Prompto’s reveal — and swore. The show was over, he was out of time.

He yanked the mirror back into place and fled from the room. 

  


He was having weird dreams lately. Swimming through the ocean searching, _searching_ , searching for something. But he never found it before he woke up. The dreams always left him restless and agitated, with a song in his head he couldn’t remember the tune to. 

And then one night the dream shifted. 

_He swam up to a coral reef and lifted himself onto the rocks. He lay across the surface, staring up at the star-filled sky. A song teased at his ear, making his chest hurt, his eyes sting._

__

And then the water shifted unnaturally and he darted around to see a stranger crossing the water towards him. (But he knew that face — it was Ardyn, looking fresh-faced and ten years younger.) 

__

His pod had warned him, over and over again, to stay away from humans. But they didn’t care for him after all, did they?

__

He stayed in place as the human paddled over. “My sweet,” he spoke, “why do you sing so sadly?”

__

“Cause I’m alone,” he replied, the human words feeling strange on his tongue. 

__

The human reached up, cupping his chin with a hand and lifting his face so their eyes met. “I weep to see you so sorrowful,” he said — though there were no tears in his eyes. “If there were but something I could do. Yet I am here, with no way home.” 

__

He let himself lean into the gentle touch. Humans were so warm, their skin so soft. It felt nicer than anything he’d felt in a long time. His heart reached out to the human, lost and alone away from his family. “I’ll take you,” he volunteered softly.

__

The human bared his teeth — they called that a smile. There was something in his eyes he would have worried about, if he’d gotten it from a mermaid. But humans were different right?

__

_He pulled the human into his arms — they were so light compared to merfolk. “Which way should I go…?”_

Noct jolted awake in his hammock, heart pounding in his chest. He swallowed as a sick realisation sunk his stomach. 

He was dreaming as Prompto. Of Prompto’s memories. That was the story Ardyn had told him — the beginning of it at least. How the hell…? He slid his legs off the hammock and tilted until he was on his feet. 

He headed out to the mermaid’s tank, but froze when he saw Ardyn standing in the doorway to his office, an amused smirk on his lips. “Good dreams, Noctis?”

He glared back at him, raising his chin defiantly. “What’s it to you?”

“Well, you stole something that belonged to me,” Ardyn said, holding up the blue crystal ball in his hands. “I believe that makes it my business.”

Noct looked at it awkwardly. “Why did he give you his dreams?” He demanded.

“So I could allow you both one more day to enjoy the ocean together,” he replied, smirking. 

“I thought he gave you his freedom to leave for that?” Noct asked suspiciously.

Ardyn laughed. “Oh, that? No. For that, I gave him back his life.”

He jolted his head up to stare at him. “What the fuck does that mean?” He asked aggressively. 

Ardyn smirked and twirled the sphere on the tip of his finger, like a basketball. “You’ll find out soon enough, I think. Well. I’d wish you pleasant dreams, but—” And then he laughed to himself, heading back into his office. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Prooooobably the last chapter for today. LOL.
> 
> I wanna write a Promptis epistolary fic so bad guys.


	17. Blessing/Curse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I lied. One more chapter, now I’m going to sleep. LOL.

With every dream, he hated Ardyn more and more. Because as the young prince, he’d been charming. It was obvious to Noct that Ardyn had never cared for Prompto, no matter what he’d said in his twisted version of this tale. He was enamoured by Prompto’s appearance — his Glimmer — and, combined with a possessiveness and little demonstrations of kindness, had the mermaid convinced it was love. Poor Prompto was completely taken in, who didn’t know enough about humans, who was still stinging with the pain of being turned out of his home, exiled from his pod. He had to see — not day by day, but in frequent snippets — the blond falling deeper into the love that would be his downfall. 

And then he had a really painful dream. 

_Promising Ardyn he would return before the full moon, he went deep out to sea. Beyond his own territories, to the murky trenches where it was said the sea witches lived. He trembled with terror, but never faltered in his sure strokes._

__

He found the first sea witch he could — Kimya. She looked like a regular mermaid except impossibly more beautiful. Like her Glimmer was working on him too, not just their predators and prey. 

__

“Come in, my dear sweet child,” she cooed, inviting him into a cavern that made his scales crawl. 

__

“I came… I… I’m here because I’m in love with—”

__

“A human, yes yes, I know,” she replied impatiently. “It’s always the same with you exiled merfolk. Drawn to the closest to our kind.”

__

She gave him very clear instructions — he had to go to a recent shipwreck (“or make one of your own, dearie, I don’t care how you do it”) and find a human sword. Then he must bring it to her to bless.

__

When he returned with the sword — just a little rusty but it was still good. Kimya said so, when he brought it back to her. 

__

She blessed it, and looked at him very seriously as she handed it over. “To alter yourself in this way will not be an easy journey, dear child,” she explained. “Beyond the pain of mutilating your own tail, every human step will be plagued with pain as if the sword is lodged in your feet. And then there is the cost.”

__

“Cost?” He echoed, confused. 

__

“All magic requires a cost, my dear child. The more ironic, the more powerful.”

__

He flicked his tail nervously. “What’s the cost?”

__

“You will not be able to speak to your beloved — nor any human. Not unless you succeed.”

__

“Succeed?”

__

“The blessing turns into a curse,” she answered. “If your beloved does not kiss you with genuine love, before the sunset on the third day, you will turn to seafoam and forever cease to exist. Not even your soul will live on.”

__

He swallowed anxiously, and held the sword close. “He will,” he whispered. “Ardyn loves me.”

__

Kimya touched his hair with affection. “May the great leviathan bless your endeavours, my dear child. May she grant you long life with your beloved, and let you pass on from this world knowing true happiness.”

__

He darted forward to hug her tightly. “Thank you!”

__

_And then he began the journey back to their beach, sword heavy in his arms._

Noct was so angry, so agitated, by the dream that he flipped clear out of his hammock. Gladio opened one eye to glare at him but, after making sure he wasn’t hurt, closed it again to go back to sleep. 

He stormed out of their room, pacing angrily on the patch of grass outside the big top. 

Obviously Prompto hadn’t had to use the sword to come to Ardyn — the ringleader had mentioned that his younger brother had approached with the other solution. But Prompto must have kept the sword, somewhere safe. 

Because that’s what he’d used to come back to the circus. He’d said himself that he’d used the witch-blessed sword to half his tail. And that’s what Ardyn had meant those weeks ago after Noct’s first dream of him. (Prompto’s? Theirs? He wasn’t exactly sure what these dreams were.) How he’d given Prompto back his life — somehow his magic must’ve been able to undo the time limit. It had been way more than three days and Prompto wasn’t sea foam. 

Prompto must’ve planned it that way — knowing Ardyn wouldn’t let him die and lose his source of mermaid tears. The only source — since Prompto was the last. 

Noct swallowed a painful lump in his throat and took a deep breath, turning back towards the tent flap. Prompto should have stayed away. He said he’d returned to free Noct from the tank — but he’d been fine in there. It kinda sucked, but not much more than his life now did. _Eons_ less than Prompto was suffering now, cage fever driving him in endless loops around the pool. Unable to even dream away the hours of rest he had to take. 

He headed back inside, climbing up onto the deck and waiting. Prompto was resting, still for once, floating idly in the middle of the water. 

They’d all gathered around the deck earlier, everyone but Ignis playing Go Fish. Until Prompto had quit rubbing his belly ib a charade that the game was making him too hungry. But there’d been something like his old spark in his violet-blue eyes while he was spending time with them all. 

He jolted out of his thoughts when he felt a shoot of water hit him in the face. He looked to see Prompto with cheeks bulging with water. But he swallowed it down when he had Noct’s attention. 

“Sorry. I had a bad dream. Kinda out of it.”

Prompto gently patted his good knee in comfort. 

Noct gave him a weak smile. “Yeah. Thanks.” He gently touched Prompto’s cheek, fingertips brushing across his scales. “So… wanna verse each other in Temple Run?”

Prompto smiled and nodded, shifting closer so he could lean up beside Noct and see his screen.

Noct tried to let the game push away his thoughts, the tangled knowledge he was getting of Prompto’s past. It wasn’t totally successful, but at least he got Prompto to smile.


	18. Somnus

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)

_He pulled himself up into the shallows, so his tail was just submerged enough to breathe. He held up the sword to the light. He had never liked pain, but the thought of being alone any longer was too painful to bear. Ardyn loved him, he was sure. He always called him ‘my little mermaid’. Ardyn would kiss him, when he had the same form, and then he’d be able to talk again. And he wouldn’t turn to seafoam and lose his soul forever. It would always hurt to walk, but he didn’t have to be _alone_._

_He raised the blade, aiming it over his tail. He could do this. He took a deep breath and began to bring it down._

_“Stop!”_

_The voice was new. Sudden and loud and commanding — his hands paused immediately, the tip of the blade a few inches from his tail. He turned his head to look at the stranger who spoke._

_There was something familiar about his face. He traced the features in search and saw something of Ardyn in them._

(Noct could see more. He could find traces of his dad in the features, and something about himself in the eyebrows and lips, the shade of his hair.)

_“Who are you?” He demanded, tensing his muscles to prepare to jump back towards deeper waters._

_The man approached, crouching just above the waterline. “My name is Somnus,” he explained. “Somnus Lucis Caelum.”_

_He frowned, confused. “Some of those are Ardyn’s names.”_

_“Yes, they would be — Ardyn is my elder brother.” This Somnus person answered with a slight smile._

_“Oh,” he said. He sat there, blade still held aloft._

_“Well?” Somnus asked, sounding amused. “Aren’t you going to tell me your name?”_

_He blinked. “You wouldn’t be able to pronounce my name,” he pointed out, confused._

_Somnus laughed. It was a gentle sound, he liked it a little bit. It grated a little less than Ardyn’s laugh — like newly broken shells and fine sand. “Well. I’d like to have something to call you.”_

_“Why?” He asked suspiciously._

_Somnus looked confused for a moment. “Because… it’s something we humans do. For politeness.”_

_“Oh.” He had very pretty blue eyes. Not like Ardyn’s warm, earthy browns. Pretty blue like the sky._

_“Well, what does Ardyn call you?”_

_He felt his cheeks warm a little. “His little mermaid,” he answered._

_Somnus stared at him for a long moment. “You really love my brother, don’t you?” He asked._

_“Yeah,” he replied, as if he should’ve known._

_Somnus gestured to the sword. “Is that what this is for?” He asked. “I’ve read accounts of merfolk, who made bargains with sea witches.”_

_“I’m going to give myself legs,” he answered, raising his chin stubbornly. “So I can really, properly be with Ardyn.”_

_Somnus watched him, his eyes almost looked sad. “And if he doesn’t give you true love’s kiss in three days, you’ll die?”_

_He shrugged. “It won’t take three days. It’s the full moon tomorrow, he’ll be here, expecting me.”_

_Somnus’s blue eyes wandered out to the sea, tracing the line of the horizon. “I have another option,” he said eventually. “One that works differently.”_

_He frowned at the human, confused. “Why?”_

_“Because you’ll go through unimaginable pain if you do it this way,” Somnus answered, gesturing to the sword. “And you’d have to give up the sea forever.”_

_It was true. He’d never be able to become a mer again. If he stepped into the ocean again, he’d be stuck as a mermaid until three days passed and he became sea foam — even if Ardyn did kiss him._

_“But not your way?” He asked, lowering the sword so it was sticking out of the sand beside him._

_“No. My way would give you a less permanent form.” Somnus turned to face him fully. “A single kiss would grant you one day with a true human form — until the sun set. Not just legs and lungs. But you could have it as many times as you wished. Every day, if you wanted.”_

_He frowned. “...what’s the cost?” He demanded. Something that ideal, of course it would have a cost. “All magic has a cost.”_

_Somnus sighed. “You would have to give me your song, so I could cast it.”_

_He raised his hand to his chest. “My song?” He asked. “But that’s my connection to the sea, my pod…!” Not that he had a pod any more…_

_“You’d be giving up that and more with your option,” he pointed out._

_He wasn’t wrong about that. He frowned at his hands, covered in scales. A true human form, and he could still talk to Ardyn. And he wouldn’t have to worry about his scales drying out… “How long does it last then?” He asked warily._

_“It’ll be enchanted with a blood price,” Somnus explained. “I would spill my blood for you to give the magic — and it could only be undone if my blood was willingly spilled for you again.”_

_“And how do I know you won’t spill it again, just when I’m happy with Ardyn? He told me about you. How spoiled you are, how jealous of everything he has.” He looked at him stubbornly. How could he trust his beloved’s evil younger brother?_

_“I wouldn’t,” Somnus said, his voice soft. “Trust me, …” He paused. “See, this is where humans would use names.”_

_He gave a little laugh at that. The laugh made Somnus smile, looking at him — his blue eyes warm with affection. “Okay. You can pick a name to use, if you want.”_

_Somnus studied him for a moment, eyes running over his scales and tail. “...Argentum.” He decided. “It means silver. Like your tail.”_

_“Argentum,” he repeated, nodding a little. “Okay. You can use that.”_

_“So… will you trust me, Argentum? Will you take my magic, instead of the sea witch’s?”_

_He wrinkled his face up as he thought about it. “Will it hurt?”_

_“The magic won’t cause you any pain at all.”_

Noct woke up crying. He spent the day next to the tank, watching Prompto swim in endless loops. And then he went to bed again, hoping he never had to have another stupid, horrible dream. 


	19. Alone (Together)

_It was a round hole, taller than twice his length, two thirds of it filled up with water. There was a crumbled set of stairs from the locked and guarded door — the guards had been ordered never to look at him. To have their eyes closed when they threw in his daily bucket of fish guts and heads. In case he enchanted them, like he had the crown prince._

_Cut off from the tides, he couldn’t tell how long it had been. Only that it was too long. Ardyn wasn’t trying — or hadn’t been successful in convincing King Izunia to let him free. Even if…_

_Even if they couldn’t be together. He couldn’t live the rest of his life here — in the dark, trapped down a hole filled with brackish water. Maybe he should stop eating. It was a slow way to go, but it’d probably be too late before the guards noticed._

_As if summoned by his thoughts, the door opened and let in the rare shaft of light that filled the hole. He expected the contents of the bucket to be tossed in and the door closed again. That’s the way it always went._

_But not today. The door closed, the shaft of light disappeared, but there was still a faint glow. He squinted up at it in confusion — until he heard a voice calling: “Argentum?”_

_With a groan of exhaustion, he swam up to the surface of the water, head and shoulders emerging. “Somnus. Come to gloat?”_

_“No, I’m not.” The younger prince sat on the stairs, setting down his lantern. “I know you won’t believe me… but when I told them I had your voice, I really was trying to protect you.”_

_“You’re right. I don’t believe you.” He deadpanned, ready to sink back into the water._

_“Would you rather they have gagged you? Or cut out your tongue?” Somnus asked, giving him a tired look._

_He didn’t answer that. Instead, he demanded: “if you’re not here to gloat, why did you come?”_

_“Father has decided my fate. I’m to be exiled.” Somnus wrapped his arms around his torso, elbows resting on his knees so he was leaning closer to the water._

_He flinched. “I’m sorry,” he said — genuinely, empathetically sorrowful for him. There was no pain like being turned out of your home. Being parted from the life you’d known, against your will. “Where will you go?”_

_“I don’t know. Depends. I’m to be given a small sea vessel,” the prince answered. “Enough money to begin life anew. And… he will permit me one request.”_

_Well. That was more than he had been given. “You’ll find somewhere,” he said softly. “Find happiness. I’m sure of it.”_

_Somnus looked at him seriously. “I could request to take you with me.”_

_He jolted in surprise at that, yanking his eyes up to stare into the prince’s pretty blues. “What?”_

_“You can’t want to stay here for the rest of your life,” Somnus said, gesturing around the dark dungeon. “Come with me. We could leave together. Find somewhere we could both be happy. With each other. Exiles together.”_

_“...Ardyn is petitioning his father,” he said, confident. “He’ll get me out.”_

_“Did he tell you that?” Somnus asked, giving him a dubious look._

_“...well, no. He hasn’t been able to come and see me. The king must have forbidden it. But I know he’ll rescue me. He loves me.”_

_Somnus sighed. “Argentum…” he murmured sadly. “Our father hasn’t forbidden anything. If he’s staying away, it’s because he doesn’t want to see you. Your Glimmer is broken — he isn’t enchanted by you any more.”_

_He felt the weight of the truth crushing his chest. “No,” he whispered, clinging to his determination. “He loves me. I know he does.”_

_Somnus sighed, offering a hand out to him. Hesitant, he swam forward and placed his own into it. “I knew he didn’t when I first saw the two of you together. It’s why I couldn’t let you use the sea witch’s knife. I couldn’t see you turn to sea foam because my brother is a heartless jerk.”_

_“No,” he denied, shaking his head. “It was just a trick of yours. So you could get my song.”_

_Somnus sighed. “I wish you could trust me again, Argentum,” he said softly. “But I know I’ve ruined that. I don’t blame you.”_

_“You humans wield your words like poisons, infecting your victims before they realise what you’re doing,” he said darkly._

_Somnus just sighed again. “Come with me, Argentum,” he pleaded again. “Even if… even if you choose to return here when our father has died. When Ardyn is free to do as he likes. Come with me now. I can’t bear the thought of you being trapped for the rest of your life.”_

_He hesitated. Then he used his arms braced on the stairs to lift himself out of the water enough to press his lips against the younger prince’s. Somnus sighed and parted his lips, allowing him to briefly press within. Then he shifted away, holding himself up even as his form shifted to human. And _Leviathan_ it was cold in here for the warm blooded. The water was icy. _

_“Argentum?” Somnus asked, giving him a confused look._

_“You don’t care for me,” he said calmly. “Your brother told me all about you. How you were jealous of all he has, and would do anything to take it away from him. I will not be a pawn in your game.”_

_The prince sighed and shook his head. “If it were true, that I just wanted to take you away to stop my brother from having you. Any life I could offer you would be better than this one. Trapped forever in the dark.”_

_He shook his head in response. “Even if I trusted you,” he answered. “I cannot go. I swore oaths. I must stay with Ardyn.”_

_Somnus reached out, brushing a thumb across the angle of his jaw. “I’m sorry, Argentum. If I asked my father to take you, his order would supersede Ardyn’s claim on you. Let me ask, let us go together.”_

_He pressed briefly into the touch. “I can never trust you again, Somnus Lucis Caelum. But I do wish you find happiness.” He let his eyes drift close, enjoying the warmth of the prince’s touch. “Should you find yourself lost at sea, sing a song — the most joyful song you know, with all the emotion you can give it. A mermaid may find you — I’m not the only one who is alone.”_

_Somnus sighed and leaned forward to press a kiss to his forehead. “Ardyn has taken your song. And confiscated my spell book. I fear for what he might do once he knows how powerful you are to him.”_

_“Don’t worry about me, Somnus Lucis Caelum. I’ll be okay.”_

Noct was shaky as he headed out to the tank, wearing sweat-soaked pyjamas. Prompto looked up at him, forehead wrinkling in concern. He rose up out of the water, reaching to cup Noct’s face. 

“He did care for you, you know?” He whispered, his voice heavy. 

Prompto looked affronted a moment, his eyes darting towards Ardyn’s office. 

“No. Not him.” He sighed shakily. “Somnus. Somnus cared about you.”

Prompto took a deep breath and sighed it out heavily. He stroked Noct’s cheek again and gave a crooked ‘I know’ of a smile. 

“I care about you too,” he mumbled. 

Prompto leaned in and kissed his cheek softly. Then he pulled back to give him the same crooked smile. 


	20. Spread Your... Fins

They returned to Cottontail Isle. With fresh water, Prompto became more lively. He still looped endlessly, but with company he was almost his bright, same self. Just silent. 

The dreams changed too. More than just memories — though he still saw those too. It was rarer than before though. Most nights he had dreams of swimming through the sea. Not alone — there was a dreamlike figure of himself there too. 

Some of them human, clinging to Prompto’s shoulders in a weird piggyback swimming ride. He didn’t question the dream logic of how he was breathing as they swam. 

In other dreams, he was mermaid again. Just as Ardyn had made him. They swum with and around each other, tails brushing. Sometimes Prompto swum in corkscrews around him — which was a weird ass sensation when in his point of view he was swimming around himself. 

Once — just once — he dreamed they were human on the pier. They kissed under the sunset, and Prompto snapped a photo of them with his Polaroid. The sun set and he didn’t change. They walked back down the pier under the stars, and the building they called home was a burned down husk. 

It was a weird dream. But it was a good one. He woke up smiling, and Prompto — the real one, not the dream self he inhabited — kept poking his cheeks to touch the smile pulling his muscles. 

“Stop,” he mumbled — smiling wider as he batted Prompto’s webbed hand away from his face. “You’re gonna make me bruise.”

Prompto just smiled at him and leaned on the edge of the tank. His tail was lapping idly at the water, catching the light of the oil lamps with silvery flashes. 

Noct leaned his elbows on either side of him, bringing their faces close together. There was a long moment as they stared deep into each other’s eyes, intense with focus. He felt the muscles at the corner of his lips twitching and then he burst into laughter again. 

Prompto gave a soft, silent giggle and reached up to poke his cheek again. 

“Stoooop,” he whined, knocking it away yet again. “Okay, we need a new game.”

Prompto hummed, bottom lip jutting out just a little into a pout. 

Noct chuckled. “I know. You like it — bet it’s cause you always win,” he grumbled. 

Prompto shook his head, giving him a soft quirk of a smile. He playfully splashed Noct and swum along the long edge of the pool, stretching out his tail fully and then relaxing it back into a lazy curl. 

Noct frowned. “The tank’s not long enough for you,” he realised quietly. “You can’t stretch out.”

Prompto shrugged, and flexed his tail again to show he could. 

“Your spine’s all curved up your back,” he pointed out. “You can’t. Not properly.”

Prompto shrugged a little, sadness touching his eyes. 

“I’ll figure something out for you, Prompto. I promise.” He reached over to cup Prompto’s cheek softly. “Dunno what yet. But something.” 

Prompto leant into his hand giving him a soft smile. But there was doubt in his eyes. 

  


A month later the 3,000 gallon tank was delivered and set up in the back room. They had to disassemble the deck to fit it in, but Noct couldn’t help a pleased look as they installed it. The inside was filled with rocks and water plants and sand, he had to make it sound like he was installing a fancy aquarium on the phone. 

Once they were done and they left, he had Gladio push Prompto’s tank back in from the big top so he could see it. 

The mermaid’s face was filled with awe. He turned to look at Noct, eyes growing shiny. 

“Yeah. For you,” he said softly. “I promised, didn’t I?”

Prompto’s face broke into a wide smile, eyes pooling with tears as they looked at him. 

“Well. Isn’t this interesting?” All of them tensed, turning to look at Ardyn who stood in the entrance to the corridor where his office was. He stepped forward, tilting Prompto’s head back so he could lick up the tears as they spilled from his cheeks. “I don’t remember authorising this renovation.”

Prompto trembled, but the happy tears had definitely stopped. 

“This takes up far too much room, and is an unnecessary indulgence,” he declared. “Noctis, call the workmen back and have them take it away.”

He took a deep breath and rose his chin defiantly. “No.”

Eyes flashed golden in warning at him. “I’ll give you one opportunity to change your response, boy.”

“I said no,” Noct said stubbornly, meeting the ringleader’s eyes. “Prompto _needs_ this.” 

Nails scraped cruelly through Prompto’s hair. “So you say.”

“It is a simple matter, Ardyn.” That was Ignis. He spoke in a calm, matter-of-fact voice. “You can persist with his confinement in a tank that barely fits him, and he will die. Or you will allow this new habitat, and his wellbeing will improve beyond measure.”

“Hm,” Ardyn said darkly. Then he hoisted Prompto up and tossed him — high, until he landed into the new tank with enviable grace. The water hardly even sloshed. Then he turned to watch the mermaid, a smirk crossing his features. “You trust him so much, my little mermaid. Yet he’s only bought you a nicer _cage_.” Then he turned on his heel and swept off, tails of his coat flaring. 

Prompto didn’t seem to notice or care about Ardyn’s threats. He stretched his long body out to its full length, spine straight for possibly the first time in months, and gave a content little chuff of bubbles from his nose and mouth. 

Noctis smiled, and sat on the ground outside the tank to watch him. Ardyn would pay him back somehow, he was sure of it. But for now, he was glad to see that Prompto was happy, and comfortable. 


	21. One Cage To Another

Prompto improved. With the larger tank with its environment meant he wasn’t going as stir crazy any more. Before the show, he had to leap out of his nice tank and into the smaller one for the performance. But he didn’t seem that bothered about it. Ardyn or Gladio would lazily toss him into his home tank after the audience had left for the night. 

But Noct started to _miss_ him. They couldn’t really hang out any more, when he sat outside the tank and Prompto sunk to his level, it was isolating. The glass between them. They weren’t _together_. 

He saw more in the dreams -- Ardyn pretending he still loved Prompto, the joy the mermaid felt to be told he was still loved, desired. Even if Noct knew it was just a ploy to trick him out of his tears, the young mermaid didn’t. He was almost heartbreakingly naive. The difference between his feelings then, and the playful bitterness that he showed when Noct met him, hurt. He could imagine all the years between them that had twisted his heart. 

And then one morning…. okay, afternoon, when he got out of bed, Prompto surprised him. As Noct was shuffling out to hang out with Prompto for the day, he was startled by movement. 

The mermaid had launched himself out of his home tank and splashed into the performance tank, soaking Noct with the splashback. He made an offended noise as his sopping hair hung over his eyes. With a huff, he shoved it back out of his eyes. “Thanks.” 

Prompto responded by spitting a stream of water at him and giving him a grin. He huffed again and came over. “You seem better.” 

In response, once Noct was close enough Prompto grabbed at him and began to feel through his pockets. “Hey!” he said, flustered. “What’s with the hands?” 

Prompto silently laughed and grinned at him victoriously as he held up Noct’s phone. He shook his head in amusement and leaned against the side of the tank. “Alright. Why don’t you try out King’s Knight?” 

*** 

He was dreaming again. _Stuck inside the watery prison hole. Things were oddly quiet outside. He hadn’t been fed for a while, the colours of his tail were fading out to a dull grey._

_He lay back against the stairs, swishing his tail in the brackish water. It had been some time since Ardyn had been able to come visit him. His father was ill, he’d said. It might be some time before they could see one another._

_But he missed his beloved. It was so unbearably lonely down here. Moreso than out in the ocean. At least out there he could still play with the fish._

_There were loud metallic noises clanging all over the place outside the room. He covered his ears with a whimper — what was all that about?_

_Around the castle around him, lots of human voices started to cry out the same words all at the same time, over and over again: “Long live King Ardyn! Long live the king!”_

_They all continued until the clanging stopped too. He took his hands away from his ears, sinking back under the water._

_The king was King Izunia, he’d thought. But Somnus had said that their father was the king. Ardyn had said his father was ill. He wasn’t exactly sure what ‘ill’ meant… but apparently it meant that Ardyn had become the ‘king’ now._

_That meant he’d be able to come visit more often now, right?_

_He watched the door expectantly, knowing Ardyn would come soon._

He woke up, agitated. But it was too early, so he shifted around in his hammock until he was comfortable again and drifted back to sleep. 

Another dream started when he slipped off. 

_He was still in the water. He spent more of his time daydreaming of the sea than he did awake these days. He was hungry, and lethargic, and his tail had lost almost all of its shine._

_They hadn’t fed him for days. If mermaids could starve to death, he might have. But they didn’t, so he wasn’t._

_He curled up at the bottom of the water, ready to drift off again. But before he slipped away, the door to his cell open. The light hurt his eyes from the depth of the water._

_“My little mermaid,” a voice called._

_Ardyn! With a burst of energy, he shot towards the surface._

_It had been almost two weeks since he’d last seen his beloved. It was hard to tell time, but he was pretty sure that was how long it had been._

_Ardyn gently cupped his face, drawing him out of the water a little. He beamed up at him, shifting closer to bring their lips together._

_But Ardyn pulled back slightly before their lips met. His thumbs brushed across his cheeks under his eyes. “Are you not happy to see me?”_

_“Of course I am, Ardyn,” he said, smiling up at him. He tried to press their lips together again, but the human once again avoided the touch. “What’s the matter?”_

_His fingers dug into the bones of his cheeks. “You don’t seem as enthusiastic as you usually do.”_

_Was… was Ardyn mad at him because he wasn’t crying with joy to see him? No, of course not. But..._

_It must have been two weeks. He could hardly smell tears on him any more. Yet he was still young, what would he have to worry about? A few months aging as his body caught up to how it would have been without his tears was nothing._

_“I’m going into a hibernation cycle from lack of food,” he explained carefully. “I’m a lot slower and weaker about everything. I’m sorry.”_

_“They’ve not been feeding you?” Ardyn asked. It must’ve been his lack of food — he almost thought Ardyn didn’t sound surprised by that fact. “I’ll have them question and corrected immediately, my little mermaid.”_

_He smiled — a single tear gathered at the corner of his eye and began to seep across his brittle skin. Ardyn turned his face and quickly kissed it away from his skin._

_Then the new king smiled at him fondly and brought his lips together. When he was human, trembling and exposed on the algae-covered stairs, Ardyn took off his cloak and draped it around his naked, transformed body. “Come. I’ll take you to the kitchens directly to eat.”_


	22. A Drop of Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Of all the things I expected to bite me at 4am and refuse to let me sleep until it was written, this was not the one I would guess. 
> 
> Minor violence warning.

He was dreaming again. 

_Prompto was hanging around Ardyn’s study. He’d finally been let out of the flooded prison cell, and left to explore the castle at will. But the occupants stared at him, and many of them made advances. His Glimmer worked when he was in a human form, so it would seem._

_So he’d retreated to be with his beloved, who was at paperwork behind his desk. “The exiled prince was located in the conquered territory,” Ardyn was saying to his assistant. “He will have to be relocated immediately.”_

_“I’ll send one of the fleet immediately, Your Majesty.”_

_“Give Somnus ten minutes to pack his things, and then he must leave my kingdom.”_

_Prompto, lounging in a bath full of seawater brought in barrels to Ardyn’s room, perked up at the sound of it. “Somnus?” He asked, after the other human had left._

_“Yes, my little mermaid. My traitorous brother.”_

_Traitorous? What had he really done that was so bad?_

_“Hm. I think I shall arrange something for his journey,” Ardyn pronounced, reaching for a familiar leather tome — Somnus’s Grimoir. He seemed fascinated by it these days. “The loss of one of my warships will be a hard one, but worth it.”_

_Loss? What did he mean?_

_“A charm for ensuring good weather for a loved one’s journey. How quaint, brother. Well, this shall be easy to invert.”_

_He felt a horrible, twisting feeling in his belly. He turned to look at Ardyn, who wore a cruel smile he’d never seen on him before._

_“Ardyn?” He called._

_“Yes, my little mermaid?”_

_“Will you come kiss me? I want to take a walk.”_

_With legs, and one of the outfits he had been given to wear (humans always covered themselves up for modesty and warmth. Couldn’t they regulate their own temperatures?) he left the palace. It was easy to charm his way onto a carriage that took him to the seaside._

_As soon as he was submerged in the water of the ocean, his true form returned. He inhaled the water through his gils and closed his eyes to listen, to feel the tides._

_Mermaids’s songs warned of a supernatural turn in the weather, and the currents were agitated by a sudden turn in the waves. Hardly questioning himself why, he streaked through the water to the place everything warned him to escape._

_Wind howled, waves grew to impossible heights and crashed against the side of a fine military ship hoisting the flags of Ardyn’s army. Lightning tore across the sky, illuminating the distressed sailors as they hoisted the mainsails and battened the hatches._

_He swam urgently underneath the bow, calling forth a song to soothe the sailors, keep them calm and steady to survive the storm. It may have even worked — the ship was sturdy and well built. But lightning struck the ship and tore a hole in the hull._

_He searched the men who leapt overboard for a familiar face, but couldn’t find who he was looking for. He swam towards the sinking wreckage. He found Somnus in a room filling with water, trapped behind metal bars. The man was screaming for help, for rescue. He raised his face from the water, hands gripping the bars._

_“Argentum?” Somnus asked, awed. “How are you here?”_

_He didn’t have time to answer. The water was already to the human’s knees and rapidly rising. He grabbed hold of two bars in each hand and wrenched them apart, until there was a gap large enough for the human._

_“Come on,” he urged._

_Somnus didn’t hesitate. He swam after him towards the stairs — but a mast fell and blocked the exit._

_He moved to take Somnus into his arms and looked at him seriously. “Deep breath,” he commanded._

_Once the human had filled his lungs, he slammed his tail into the side of the ship and tore a new hole. He darted through it, holding the prince firmly in his arms, and pressed for the surface again._

_Then he didn’t stop swimming until he reached the shore of another land, keeping their heads above the surface so Somnus could breathe. Then he lay the unconscious human well above the tideline and retreated back to the water to watch._

_He lay over a rock, gills submerged for fresh oxygen, to keep an eye on the prince. But exhaustion soon overcame him._

_He woke up with hands combing through his hair, and cracked one eye open to look who. Somnus was sat up on the rock, looking pale and shaky. “You saved me.”_

_“Ardyn sent a storm to sink your ship,” he answered, pushing himself up on one elbow. “I couldn’t let him...hurt you.”_

_“Why not?” Somnus questioned, his voice gentle._

_“You saved me once. If I had used the sea witch’s spell, I would’ve died. Ardyn does not love me, and I would have become sea foam.”_

_“Is that all?” Somnus asked. “Making it even?”_

_“What other reason could I have?” He replied, looking away from the prince._

_There was a long silence. Filled with something he didn’t know how to name._

_But the prince eventually spoke. “Stay with me,” Somnus urged. “Don’t return to him.”_

_“You know I cannot,” he answered with a sigh._

_“You’ve already left him. You know now that he doesn’t care for you. My eyes are open, Argentum, and I still see you.”_

_He closed his eyes, and slowly took a deep breath. “I’ll stay with you for a little time,” he answered. “But my home is the sea. I don’t think I was ever meant to live on land.”_

_Somnus gently cupped his face in both hands, looking deeply into his eyes before he leaned in to press their lips together._

_They spent days, settling into the new land. The people of Tennebrae were friendly, and helped two shipwrecked men prepare a little home by the seaside to call their own._

_When he was sure the prince was settled — known only as Izunia Lucis Caelum here, not Prince Somnus — he said goodbye._

_“You’ll come visit me?” Somnus asked, standing waist-deep in the water and tightly gripping his arm._

_“I might,” he answered. In truth, the idea did seem welcoming. But he wouldn’t promise, not when he had his freedom again._

_“I’ll sing for you,” Somnus declared. “Every day. Like you told me, a song of feeling. I’ll sing you back to me.”_

_He smiled briefly. “Not every day. You’ll annoy the local pod.”_

_Reluctantly, the prince did let his arm go, and he followed the call of the tides._

_Three days passed, and he was considering if he might go visit Somnus. But then a sound tore at his heart. It was his pod! Their song! They were singing him home!_

_He swam as fast as he could towards the pull, hope and joy swelling in his chest. Had they decided to welcome him back? That their resources had replenished and they could spare enough to feed him again?_

_But he felt a nervous twist in his belly when he realised the song wasn’t calling him back to their home. Even more so when he realised where it was leading him._

_He struggled to resist, but it was too much to. He dragged himself onto the sand of the beach and found Ardyn in his old spot, holding a familiar conch shell to his lips._

_He shook with rage, wanted to lash out and kill the human. “Uh-Uh-Uh!” Ardyn scolded, shaking a finger at him. “I have archers all over the cliffs. You won’t live if you harm me.”_

_He grit his sharp teeth, narrowing eyes at him. “What do you want?” He demanded._

_“You swore to stay by my side, Prompto. Not abscond with my brother and return to the sea.”_

_“You can’t hold me!” he snapped back furiously._

_Ardyn held up the shell. The one Somnus had used to capture his song. “Perhaps not. But I can sing you back to me whenever I desire.”_

_He lashed his tail angrily. How could he have ever believed this man loved him? How could he have loved this man? “I will never stop fighting for my freedom!”_

_“So you say.” The king held the conch to his lips again, and a song of grief and mourning tore at his senses._

_His eyes welled and spilled over with tears — and that seemed to be what Ardyn wanted. The king yanked him up and _licked_ the tears up from his face like he was a starving man. _

_He shoved the king roughly away, his strength enough to send him stumbling back a few steps. “How dare you?” He hissed, baring his teeth in warning._

_“I require you to supply me with your tears every two weeks,” Ardyn announced, his tone businesslike. “It really is inconvenient if I have to sing you back to me each time. So you will swear an oath — magically binding, this time — to remain by my side.”_

_He grit his teeth. “Like hell!”_

_Ardyn smirked. “I’m willing to negotiate. You must wish a guarantee of some kind, surely. An exchange.”_

_He lashed his tail again. But an image did come to mind. Somnus, half-drowned on the beach of Tennebrae, because his brother had twisted nature itself to kill him._

_Slowly, he unclenched his teeth. “We will swear the oath together,” he declared. “I shall stay by your side, and you shall never spill a drop of Somnus’s blood. He is allowed to live out his life in peace.”_

_Ardyn looked furious at the command, but nodded. “It will be done.”_

  


Noct woke up falling out of his hammock where he’d been thrashing his legs about in anger. Gladio was giving him an annoyed look. He just flipped the guy off and stalked out of the bedrooms. 

They were on tour again, travelling through time and distance in Ardyn’s search for reputation and poor unfortunate souls. 

He stopped at the large tank that housed Prompto, but the mermaid was hidden somewhere among the rocks and seaweed — invisible to Noct’s eye. 

Instead, he stalked through the room until he came to Ardyn’s office. He could hear the ringleader snoring in the adjoining room, and spared a glare in that general direction. 

He wanted to smash every bottle of mermaid’s tears in the shelf, knowing Prompto had been made to shed them. To save a man who had long ago died, and may not have even really cared for him. Noct was here, after all, Somnus must’ve moved on. 

The mermaid, so sweet and kind and lost, had been twisted up in the games of two brothers and suffered a thousand years of tears for it. But it hadn’t broken him. No, Prompto was still as kind and joyous as he had been then — if made a little bitter by the passage of time. Noct loved that about him. 

He came to a stop, mid-step, struck still by the thought he’d just had. He _what_? Did he _love_ Prompto?

He couldn’t deny it. Or pick when it had happened. He loved the mermaid, he would do anything in his power to make sure Prompto was happy. Or as happy as he could be in a situation like this. 

Flustered, he reached up to cover his face and sunk into the closest chair. What a mess. 

Eventually, he sighed and lowered his hands from his face and hung his head. But then he sat up a little as his eyes landed on a conch shell. One he’d just been dreaming of. 

Ardyn had left it on his desk. 

He picked it up carefully in his fingers. Such a simple thing, fragile really, and it had caused Prompto centuries of suffering. 

He had thrown it — hard — at the fireplace before he really thought about it. It wasn’t like the Disney movie where golden light drifted out of the shattered remains with a beautiful song. The whole room throbbed with the sound of an unearthly scream. 

He wasn’t surprised when Ardyn stormed in, eyes wild with fury — how could he have slept through that?

The ringleader pulled him up with eyes ablaze. “You utter brat!” he snarled. 

One hand drew back and flew down, pain stinging across Noct’s cheek and spreading through his whole skull. He could taste copper and darted his tongue to sweep up the drop of blood that oozed out of his split lip.

“You can’t sing him back to you,” he hissed. “He’s not _yours_.”

“He is mine, you imbecile! As are you! Or did you forget you sold your soul to me?” Ardyn shook him violently. “I’ve allowed you to play your childish games, but this is the last straw. You will **not** cross me again!”

Dragging him up, he pulled Noct over to the open door and tossed him out of it to the feet of the other victims of Ardyn’s cruelty. 

Gladio reached a hand down for him to pull himself up. Noct did, standing on shaky feet. They all must’ve been woken up by the noise of the shell breaking. 

“All of you return to bed!” he snarled. “Now!” Then he turned into his office and slammed the door closed. 

“Come,” Ignis said quietly. “I’ll fetch something cold for your face.”


	23. Burning

Noct stood before the burning circus tent, a shock blanket wrapped around his shoulders, while police and fire department officials milled around behind him, collecting statements. 

He couldn't believe it had come to this. 

Yesterday he'd been sneaking into Ardyn's office and smashing the shell that held Prompto's voice, and tonight the circus was aflame, and the fire department had only found the aged corpse of Ardyn inside. There was no sign of Prompto, or even murmurs of a mermaid or strange sea creature. 

So where was he? What had happened? 

Ignis was shaken, unable to talk. Gladio was weak, for him. And Luna kept coughing into gauze the paramedic had handed her. Whatever magic Ardyn had been using, it was over. 

Ardyn was gone. 

And Prompto was missing. 

Earlier that day, he'd woken up out of sleep, something strange teasing at his ear. It was something soft and beautiful, a song that called to him in a gentle way. _Are you busy? I want to see you_ , it seemed to say. 

He'd followed out to Prompto's smaller tank, where the mermaid was leaning on his elbows to look over the edge of the tank at him. "Did you call for me?" He asked. 

Prompto nodded. He made a gesture, tapping his throat and making a gesture out of his mouth. It was surprisingly similar to that scene where Ariel met Eric as a human in the Little Mermaid. But he was pretty sure Prompto had never seen that one. 

He nodded. "Yeah. I smashed the shell," he replied, coming closer to him. "I lost my temper." 

Prompto shifted forward, his hand very gently touching his bruised cheek. 

"Yeah. Ardyn lost his too." 

Prompto's eyes widened slightly, shifting to touch his split lip. 

"It's okay," he answered gently. "It didn't bleed much." 

A shaky breath escaped his lips, and his eyes locked on Noct's, studying him carefully. He gave a slight reassuring smile and nodded, sinking back into the water. 

It was later that afternoon that Ignis announced they were all to go out for the evening. They were in Noct's time — or a year or so after it — and he was eager to go out and try the food he was used to eating. Ignis seemed anxious about it, but firm in his insistence that it was what they were to do. He gave no more information — maybe he didn't have it. 

While they were out for dinner, he'd suddenly paled and demanded they all had to return to the circus. "Prompto, he's…" 

But when they'd arrived back, the circus had already been aflame. And Ignis could not see what had happened to them. 

*** 

The four of them settled in Noct's huge mansion. Aranea, who had — it seemed — actually wished to escape the pressures of her high society life, had been confirmed as the only living heir of the Highwind fortune and shoved back in to it. Luna benefited from the advanced medicine, and her tuberculosis was being treated with regular medicines. Ignis was shaky and unsteady in the new environment, but Gladio always had a hand to spare him — no longer hesitant to touch anyone in fears of breaking them with superhuman strength. 

Gladio seemed to have gotten the best out of all of them in settling in Noct's time. Clarus's daughter had looked at him, given a confused twist of a look, and asked: "great uncle Gladio?" 

(Gladiolus Amicitia. Clarus's uncle. He'd never mentioned his last name before otherwise Noct might have _known_.) 

But Noct longed. He missed Prompto, didn't know whether he was alive or dead. He still dreamed — but he didn't know if that was because he still held the mermaid's dreams in his death, or because he was still out there somewhere, linking them together. He dreamed of swimming through the ocean, alone and free, or with Noct alongside him sharing in his joy of the sea. 

And then, two months after the fire, he dreamed of what had happened that night. 

_Prompto waited in his smaller tank. The humans had left, and it was only him and Ardyn. Just as he had intended. In his hands, he carefully held a conch shell he'd found amongst the decorations at the bottom of his large tank._

_He began to sing, sharp and demanding, to bring Ardyn to him. The monster appeared within only moments, a familiar smug smirk on his face. "I wondered why you had sent them away." He approached, eyeing the shell with satisfaction. "You wish to trade again?"_

_He nodded, turning it over in his hands, not moving his eyes from Ardyn's._

_"Very well. Your speaking voice back, I assume. I'll treat you and remove the effects of the sea witch's sword entirely."_

_He nodded, but raised his chin in demand — to show clearly he expected more than that._

_Ardyn laughed. "Very well, what else then?"_

_He tapped his lips in response._

_The monster laughed at him. "Alright. Somnus's spell as well, to let you walk as human during the day again. Anything else, my dear little mermaid?"_

_He narrowed his eyes and pursed his lips, but shook his head quietly. That was enough._

_"Very well." He summoned his magic, all shadows and corrupted energy instead of the light he had stolen from Prompto's heart. Did he even notice it was missing yet?_

_"Finally," Prompto murmured, with his speaking voice, as the magic passed away. He allowed Ardyn to step closer and press their lips together, to feel the familiar transformation seizing his lower body and forming the funny little human legs. He stood up and swung out of the tank, finding his balance again after so long without._

_"Now you, my little mermaid."_

_Prompto only smiled, and in a movement too fast for even the corrupted human to catch, slammed the hard plastic of the shell against his temple. Ardyn stumbled back, clutching his head in a daze, looking down at him in disbelief._

_"You swore to me," he said coolly, stepping closer. "That you would never spill a single drop of Somnus's blood. Did you forget it still ran through the man you struck last night?" He hissed._

_Ardyn's eyes widened — Prompto could feel him reaching for the magic of the heart that now belonged to him and him alone. But he could no longer access it. Not that it meant he was much less powerful, not with all his centuries of collecting human souls to feed his magic._

_So Prompto struck him again, with more of his inhuman strength, causing him to fall down onto the ground of the circus ring. He walked swiftly past him, into the office._

_"Don't you dare!" Ardyn snarled, trying to get back to his feet._

_Prompto easily deflected any attempts at magic the other sent his way, now he had full use of his own heart back. He pulled open the mirror that concealed the treasures behind it, taking out the silver box. He could feel the human souls screaming in suffering as his fingers touched it, and he drew on them as he let the box aflame. It was consumed in moments, the flames eating up the box and releasing the souls out into… well, wherever human souls went once they were dead. He wasn't sure._

_"No!" Ardyn screeched from the doorway of the office. He fell onto the ground, breathing laboured. "What have you done, you **creature**?"_

_"Undoing the damage I've caused letting you trick me a thousand years ago," Prompto replied. He took the book from behind the mirror — Somnus's spell book once upon a time — but left the rest of the trinkets inside._

_He could see centuries of magic unravelling around Ardyn, even his physical form began to age as if years were seconds._

_He stepped across the office to him and looked down at him. A pathetic, broken mortal after so long. He looked down at him. "I'm sorry," he said genuinely. "I should have never rescued you. You would never have become what you are if it weren't for me."_

_And then he turned to leave, uncaring as the smouldering ashes of the box began to catch the rest of Ardyn's collections aflame._

And there the dream ended. 

**Author's Note:**

> One of my online friends suggested I start a discord server for people who read my fics to be able to interact with each other and with me. So I did! Feel free to drop in.


End file.
